Warren’s Lucas Thrift, seen here in Friday’s loss to Oil City, scored 17 points Tuesday as the Dragons beat Conneaut 61-51 in Region 5 boys basketball. Jacob McMeans led Warren with 22 points, including seven 3-pointers. File photo courtesy of Mark Evans

CONNEAUT LAKE — Warren boys basketball senior Jacob McMeans drained seven 3-pointers on Tuesday evening when the Dragons took on Conneaut, and came home with an important 61-51 Region 5 victory.

Up just one point after the first half, the Dragons put on arguably their best defensive performance of the season, and limited the Eagles to just four points in the third quarter.

Head coach Jeff Berdine stated he and the team had some, “… talks with the kids about how bad our defense was in the first half, along with bad fundamentals and poor first-half game plan execution.”

Needless to say, the kids clearly listened to their head coach. The effort on defense paired with 20 team points enabled the Dragons to extend their lead to now 17 points with one quarter remaining.

The Eagles refused to quit as they had a huge 22-point fourth quarter, but ran out of time, giving the Dragons the hard fought win

Leading the Dragons with 22 points was McMeans, followed by 17 from Lucas Thrift.

“Jacob and Lucas both caught fire in the third to give us a spark offensively,” added Berdine. Also in double digits for the Dragons was Logan Crissey with 11 points.

Nick Garcia led the Eagles with 13 points.

The Dragons have a home game Thursday as they host the Bradford Owls for a 6 p.m. junior varsity start with varsity to follow.

Their final regular-season game is Friday when they travel to Corry to take on the Beavers.