Franklin broke a halftime tie with a 24-16 third quarter and held off Warren, 68-62, on Tuesday in the Region 4 opener for both at Warren Area High School.

“We didn’t play as well as we’re capable of,” said Warren coach Jeff Berdine, whose Dragons are 7-5 overall. “In a game like that, we have to play as well as we can. I think the difference, they came out in the second half, (Jalen) Wood his two 3-pointers in the corner and (Ethan) Owens hit a big ‘3’ off a miss; those three 3s were huge for them and that really kind of gave them a working margin.”

Owens and Cole Buckley had 7 points each in the third and Wood 6 for Franklin (9-4 overall).

Owens and Damon Curry finished with 20 points apiece in the win, Buckley added 16 and Wood 11 — accounting for 67 of the Knights’ 68 points.

Parks Ordiway had four 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 22 points for the Dragons; his ‘3’ at the final buzzer came too late to affect the outcome. Tommy Nyquist ended with 14 points for Warren and Konnor Hoffman 9 off the bench.

When Warren was forced to foul, Franklin hit its free throws. The Knights finished 15-for-19 at the line.

“I don’t think we played badly, just not well enough to beat one of the best AAA teams in D10 and our region,” said Berdine.

In the junior varsity game, Chase Sitler’s 3-pointer with 7.6 seconds left gave the Dragons a 46-45 win. Sitler finished with 28 points, including all 7 fourth-quarter points for Warren. Johnny Corbett hit two key 3-pointers in the third quarter and ended with 8 points in the win.

FRANKLIN (68)

Owens 7 4 20, Buckley 4 8 16, Wood 4 0 11, DrPayne 0 0 0, Leccia 0 1 1, McCracken 0 0 0, Curry 8 2 20. Totals 23 15 68.

WARREN (62)

Ordiway 9 0 22, Sitler 0 0 0, Berdine 1 0 3, Darling 0 0 0, Nyquist 6 0 14, Errett 0 0 0, Becker 2 2 6, Barnes 3 2 8, Hoffman 3 1 9. Totals 24 5 62.

3-pointers: Owens 2, Wood 3, Curry 2, Ordiway 4, Berdine, Nyquist 2, Hoffman 2.

Franklin 14 13 24 17 — 68

Warren 14 13 16 19 — 62