“The kids showed a little mental fatigue — (with) multiple mental mistakes — in the second half,” said Warren coach Jeff Berdine, whose Dragons fell to 15-5 overall. “We were also 1 for 11 from the 3-point line in the second half.”

It was absolutely a tale of two halves; Warren used balanced scoring to lead by nine at halftime. Tommy Nyquist had 8 points and Brady Berdine and Chase Sitler 7 apiece in a 33-24 first half.

“I give our kids credit because back-to-back games are tough this late in the season,” said Coach Berdine. “We brought a lot of energy early in the game and defensively. The first half was as good as we’ve played all year.”

The Beavers’ Senior Night was also Friday, and they saved their defensive energy for the second half of Saturday’s district crossover game.

Photo by Mark Evans Warren’s Chase Sitler (2) puts up a floater for two points over DuBois’ Tyson Kennis in the Beavers’ 53-48 comeback win over the Dragons on Saturday at Warren Area High School.

“I felt this would be a very good matchup for us before we played Oil City again, having played the last two teams (Conneaut and Titusville) where things were pretty easy for us offensively and defensively,” said Coach Berdine.

DuBois’ 6-foot-5 senior center Tyson Kennis scored 9 points in the Beavers’ 15-6 third quarter — as Warren’s shooting went cold — to help tie the score at 39-39. Kennis’ two dunks in the fourth quarter, and 3-pointers from senior Cam Thompson and sophomore Maddox Bennett, effectively put the game away.

Konnor Hoffman’s 3-pointer at the buzzer cut the deficit and the result to 53-48. It was Warren’s only 3-pointer of the half out of 11 attempts and just its seventh field goal.

Berdine and Sitler finished with 11 points apiece for Warren, while Kennis led District 9’s DuBois (15-6) with 23 points. Bennett had four 3-pointers and 15 points. The Beavers have one regular season game remaining Friday at Brookville (9-9).

Warren hosts Oil City (16-4) on Tuesday and Corry (12-8) on Friday.

Earlier on Saturday, Jacob McMeans and Landon Wood had 13 points apiece in the Warren junior varsity team’s 49-29 win.

DUBOIS (53)

Bennett 5 1 15, Farrell 0, Thompson 4 1 10, West 0, Williams 2 0 5, Wingard 0, Corle 0, Kennis 10 3 23. Totals 21 5-10 53.

WARREN (58)

Corbett 1 0 3, Sitler 5 1 11, Berdine 5 0 11, Nyquist 3 0 8, Barnes 4 0 9, Hoffman 1 3 6, Wyman 0. Totals 19 4-6 48.

3-point goals–Maddox 4, Thompson, Williams, Corbett, Berdine, Nyquist 2, Barnes, Hoffman.

DuBois 16 8 15 14 — 53

Warren 21 12 6 9 — 48