There were plenty of reasons for the Warrenton girls' basketball team to be amped up on Monday.

It was the home opener for the Warriors. The game came against a very good Hermann team. Warrenton coach Hanna Logan was going for her 50th career win guiding the team.

There were plenty of reasons to pick from. Senior guard Savannah Miller and senior forward Zoe Duncan picked two significant reasons for success.

“In the locker room, we talked about all the things we needed to work on,” Miller said. “We knew we had to be hyped. I think that overall vibe helped us. The bench was hyped, the (girls on the floor) were hyped. We had a great mindset and that helped us start strong.”

That strong start saw the home team score the game’s first 16 points on the way to a 44-35 win.

While Miller focused on emotion, Duncan took a more cerebral approach at the start.

“We knew they were a fast team, a good team, so we knew we had to play our best,” Duncan said. “We had so many people on fire and us knowing what we had to do helped us. We went out and executed the offense.”

Catapulted by the 16-point head start, Warrenton (2-2) led 16-5 after the first quarter and 26-11 by halftime,

For as well as the game’s opening minutes went, they went less than ideally out of the locker room in the second half.

Hermann (4-4) cut the lead to as few as six points in the fourth quarter – at 41-35 – with just under two minutes to play.

Behind seven points each from Miller and Duncan in the second half, Warrenton was able to hold on to the lead and win the game.

“When the gap was getting smaller, (it was because) we were getting ahead of ourselves,” Miller said. “As coach says, we had to ‘pump the brakes’ and settle down and run our plays to get good looks and not just throw stuff up. We settled down, played as a team and we got the win.”

Hermann got 11 points from Kimber Hale and 10 from Kealie Lane.

Logan said the team defense on Lane was vital to the victory.

“We worked on some things in practice leading up to the game. We knew we had to stop Lane,” Logan said. “She averages 20 but had 10 tonight and she fouled out. We talked about the fact that we were the stronger and bigger team and, if we got the chance, we could get out and run.”

Miller led the way for Warrenton with 14 points while junior guard Sophie Benke scored 12 and Duncan added 11.

“It feels really good for all of us to come together and play the way we did against a really good team,” Duncan said.

As far as getting her 50th win in her fourth season, Logan praised her players – past and present.

“This is a big one, I know Hermann had a lot of big wins before tonight,” Logan said. “It feels special (to get to 50 wins).”