Both Warren County teams prevailed, setting up a Warren-Eisenhower showdown tonight.

DRAGONS PREVAIL

The Dragons faced off against a tough Iroquois Braves team, led by 6-foot-7 senior Kellen Burroughs.

The Dragons shook off some early jitters to defeat the Braves 59-48 and advance to the championship game, where they will face county rival Eisenhower tonight.

Times Observer Photo by Steve Younger Eisenhower’s Austin Hanson lays in two of his 21 points during Thursday’s opening-round game against Clarion-Limestone in the CRS Tip-Off Classic at Eisenhower High School.

Warren started off very strong on the offensive boards, having four in the first three minutes. Both teams made numerous offensive and defensive errors in the first quarter, but Warren’s aggressive defense prohibited Iroquois from scoring until 2:28 remained. The Dragons led 13-4 heading into the second quarter.

Senior Jacob McMeans started off the second quarter scoring for Warren as he stole the ball and finished down with an easy bucket. The Dragons were swarming the Braves defensively, and Allen Eaton was able to have a good drive, finish, and the and-one for the old-school three-point play with 5:26 remaining. The play of the game for Warren came with 54 seconds left in the half, when junior Max Spiegel had a massive two-handed slam dunk. With the momentum favoring Warren, senior Logan Crissey made a last-second bucket to go up 26-12 at the half.

The third quarter saw senior Lucas Thrift convert a nice layup, and the Dragons were now up 45-25 heading into the fourth quarter.

Iroquois came out hot in the final period, going on a seven-point run, led by Burroughs. Crissey would respond, converting an and-one, as well as another basket to build the Dragon lead to 18. Burroughs made a nice drop-step and one-hand slammed the ball, for his third dunk of the night. Thrift had a clutch late-game tip in to go up 55-42. The late Braves’ run would come up a bit short as the Dragons would hold on for the win.

The Dragons utilized their depth to make timely substitutions, and played strong, aggressive defense to pressure the Braves into making mistakes.

“That dunk felt awesome in the moment,” Spiegel said postgame. “This was my first varsity start, and the dunk was my first-ever varsity basket. I was nervous (about the game) on the bus, but I reminded myself this is just another basketball game. For the finals, we need to stop the threes, get rebounds, and capitalize on the fast breaks.”

Leading the Dragons’ scoring was Crissey with 20 points, Jacob McMeans with 13, and Allen Eaton with 10. David Manning drained two 3-pointers.

For Iroquois, Burroughs had poured in a game-high 29 points.

With the Dragons facing the Knights tonight, the highly anticipated county-clash will begin after the third-place game between Iroquois and Clarion-Limestone which begins at 6 p.m. at Eisenhower High.

KNIGHTS ROLL TO WIN

Eisenhower used a balanced offense to defeat Clarion-Limestone 78-47 in the other opening-round game.

By defeating the Lions the Knights will face off against Warren at 7:30 tonight in the championship game.

Highly touted freshmen Kumasi Vine and Liam Hanson made their first varsity starts for Eisenhower, which jumped out to an early 10-2 lead behind 3-points by Austin Hanson who finished with 21 points, and Rylan Benson, who finished with 16 points in his Knights’ debut.

Eisenhower pulled away in the second half as head coach Ryan Mangini went deep to his bench to get everyone in the game behind a running clock.

THOUGHTS ON THE SHOT CLOCK

There generally seems to be an overall consensus on the shot clock implementation from the student-athletes at Warren High.

Although not applicable to anyone who is a sophomore or older, they still feel the shot clock is a long time coming.

Senior Logan Crissey commented, “Shot clocks have been a part of the game for years and I think it’s time PA gets up to date with the times. A shot clock will speed up play and eliminate stalling, leading to more exciting and entertaining games to watch. It will also lead to new strategies being implemented on games.”

WAHS senior Peyton Wotorson added, “I personally think shot clocks should have always been a part of high school ball in PA. Shot clocks in high school can better prepare those players that are going off to play in college. It also allows for teams to not be able to just hold the ball, and forces them to either set something up or get a good transition bucket.”

Since the shot clock will not impact these athletes until the 2028 season, a few current WAHS freshmen provided their input as it will impact them their senior season.

Ava Wymer, a freshman, commented, “This is a good decision by the PIAA because it will force us to make decisions quicker, but that could lead to more mistakes and errors. The pace of play will definitely be a lot faster, so we will have to learn how to adapt. I like how the end of games will be different, because kids won’t be just dribbling the ball around, wasting time.”

Another freshman, Grant May, stated, “I think having a shot clock will be a good thing, overall. It will make the game faster because you can’t hold the ball as long as you want. We will have to make adjustments because there will be a sense of feeling rushed, especially once we first start getting used to it.”