Tied 51-51, Brady Berdine’s 3-pointer from the wing and Tommy Nyquist’s driving layup on Warren’s next possession put the Dragons up 56-51 with a minute and a half to go.

Thirty seconds later, up 56-52, Warren had three chances from just under the bucket, but missed all three. Konnor Hoffman’s offensive rebound kept possession, and his outlet pass set the Dragons back up to run time off the clock. With the Oilers forced to foul, Berdine made the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity, but missed the back end.

Down 57-52, VanWormer’s driving layup cut the Warren lead to three with 36 seconds left.

Warren missed the front end of a 1-and-1 on its next possession, and VanWormer made them pay. He hit a 3-pointer — his second of the fourth quarter — to tie the score at 57-57 with 20 seconds left.

Photo courtesy of Mark Evans Warren’s Brady Berdine lays in 2 points during a Region 6 boys basketball game against Oil City on Friday at Warren Area High School.

Warren held for the final shot, and Nyquist went to the line and hit the second free throw for a 58-57 lead with 3.7 seconds left.

VanWormer took the inbounds pass across half-court, and hit a running 3-pointer for the win.

The win was Oil City’s 11th straight and the Oilers are 4-0 in the region.

“We had multiple opportunities and didn’t take advantage of it,” said Warren coach Jeff Berdine, whose Dragons are 9-6 overall and 2-2 in the region with losses to Franklin and now Oil City (14-2 overall). “We got outscored big time in the second quarter to get them back into the game.”

Nyquist and Berdine scored 8 points apiece in Warren’s 25-15 first quarter. Parks Ordiway scored all 5 of the Dragons’ second-quarter points as the Oilers clawed back to within 4 points at halftime.

“Offensively, we didn’t have a lot of flow tonight,” said coach Berdine. “Everybody seemed like they were in a hurry offensively, and I thought (Oil City) really did a good job defensively in the second quarter limiting us to 5 points.”

Ordiway was hit in the face on the offensive end in the second quarter and couldn’t return.

“You lose a veteran like that in a game like this really hurts,” said coach Berdine, “but we had opportunities, and against a good team you have to take advantage of it.”

Warren actually built the lead back to 8 points entering the fourth quarter. Konnor Hoffman and Braylon Barnes picked up the slack, combining for 12 points in the Dragons’ 14-10 quarter.

Oil City didn’t take its first lead of the game until about five minutes to go in the fourth when Sayyid Donald’s driving layup put the Oilers up 49-48. A hoop with harm by Brady Berdine gave Warren the lead right back, and Oil City didn’t lead again until the game-winner.

“Like I told (the team), I should have taken a timeout at the end to let things settle and I didn’t, and (VanWormer) ran up out of control and that was it,” said coach Berdine.

VanWormer finished with 19 points – 11, including three 3-pointers, in the fourth quarter. Donald added 14 points and Gavin Stephens 12 for the Oilers. Brady Berdine led Warren with 17 points and Nyquist scored 14 points.

Earlier on Friday, Oil City jumped out to a 32-17 halftime lead and held off Warren 47-43 in the jayvee game. Chase Sitler scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half and teammates Jacob McMeans and Tage Wyman added 8 points apiece. McMeans hit a 3-pointer and stole the inbounds and was fouled, pulling WAHS to within 4 points in a matter of seconds late in the fourth.

OIL CITY (60)

Highfield 0 0 0, Hornbeck 2 4 8, Stephens 4 1 12, McMahon 2 1 6, VanWormer 8 0 19, Hargenrader 0 1 1, Donald 6 1 14. Totals 22 8 60.

WARREN (58)

Ordiway 4 0 10, Sitler 0 0 0, Berdine 7 2 17, Darling 0 0 0, Nyquist 5 1 14, Errett 0 0 0, Becker 1 1 3, Barnes 2 2 7, Hoffman 3 0 7. Totals 22 6 58.

3-point goals–Stephens 3, McMahon, VanWormer 3, Donald, Ordiway 2, Berdine, Nyquist 3, Barnes, Hoffman.

Oil City 15 11 10 24 — 60

Warren 25 5 14 14 — 58