It was senior night for the Dragons as they honored their five seniors in Peyton Wotorson, Emma Roell, Emma Gray, Tori Solberg and Emma Rarey. The night kicked off with the celebration of each senior, followed by the singing of the national anthem by Emma Roell.

With all five seniors starting, Roell kicked off the scoring off a Wotorson steal, but the Royals would quickly respond, going on a nice 8-0 run to take the lead 10-3, and sink a buzzer beater to be up 14-8 after the first quarter.

The second quarter saw a pair of Dragon steals from Molly Richards and Wotorson, both leading to easy layups for the Dragons. Once the Dragons would score, the Royals would answer. Warren would go into the half down 22-16. Needing some momentum to open up the third quarter, the Dragons got exactly what they needed off a pair of Ava Wymer buckets and steals. Down 25-24, Wotorson picked off an Erie Royal pass, drove for the layup, was fouled, and made the basket to take the lead for the first time since the opening minutes. Wotorson sank the free throw for the old-school three-point play, and the home team was up 29-25 with the final quarter remaining.

The fourth quarter was another see-saw start, with the Dragons striking first, then the Royals answering. Down four points, Erie went to the full-court press in an effort to force a Dragon turnover. The Lady Dragons broke it, and Toru Solberg would capitalize as she made a pair of free throw to extend the Warren lead to six points with 2:35 remaining. Another Royal turnover led to an Emma Gray clutch bucket to extend the lead to eight points.

Photo courtesy of Mark Evans From the left are Warren seniors Emma Gray, Emma Rarey, Tori Solberg, Emma Roell and Peyton Wotorson.

The Royals drained a 3-pointer followed by a putback to cut the Dragon lead to just three points. With 17.4 seconds left, the Lady Dragons committed their fifth team foul for the quarter, which meant two free throws.

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Erie would capitalize by making both shots to get within one point. Trying the full court press again, Wotorson was fouled with six seconds left, and made both free throws when they needed them the most.

With the Dragons leading 42-39, the Royals failed to get a last-second shot off. The Lady Dragons won their final home game of the season on Senior Night.

“I was telling the girls down the stretch just to remain calm, take care of the ball, and make good decisions,” said Warren head coach Jenny Phillips. “It’s a huge win for the team as a whole and certainly our seniors who have dedicated so many years to the program. It is just a really great way to spend their final home game. I hope the seniors leave with an immense sense of pride of all the hard work and dedication they built into this program. They are a really great group of girls and I’ll certainly miss every single one of them.”

Leading scorers for the Dragons were Roell with 13, Peyton Hagg with 9, Wotorson with 8 and Ava Wymer with 4.

Erie’s Mari Sanders led all scorers with 17 points, and Keasia Person had 11 points.

The girls return to the court on Monday when they head to Cathedral Prep to take on the Ramblers. Junior varsity tips off at 6 p.m. with varsity to follow at 7:15 p.m.

STEINBERG POURS IN 33

ERIE — Clara Steinberg led three players in double figures with 33 points as the Eisenhower girls basketball team went on the road Thursday and picked up a Region 3 win, downing Iroqouis 69-37.

Lainey Font and Riley Robinault also had nice games for the Knights with 15 and 13 points respectively.

The Braves kept the game close in the opening quarter, trailing 13-9 advantage, but Eisenhower increased its lead to 27-18 at halftime and then put the game away in the third quarter behind Steinberg’s 15 points. Heading into the final period, the Knights led 51-30.

Eisenhower will be back in action on Monday when it entertains Union City.

EISENHOWER (69)

Font 5 3 15, Childs 1 0 2, Belcher 1 0 2, Robinault 6 1 13, Steinberg 12 6 33, Black 2 0 4, Scott 0 0 0, Kent 0 0 0, Guiher 0 0 0, Totals 27 10 69.

IROQUOIS (37)

Dunar 2 0 5, KReichard 1 0 2, Turkmillet 3 0 8, JReichard 0 0 0, Andrejewski 1 0 3, Frick 3 2 10, Coblentz 3 0 6, Noles Crouch 1 1 3, Totals 14 3 37.

3-point goals — Font 2, Steinberg 3, Dunar, Turkmillet 2, Andrejewski, Frick 2.

Eisenhower 14 13 24 18 — 69

Iroquois 9 9 12 7 — 37

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Steve Younger contributed to this report