Warrenton senior Joe Goldsmith’s strong offensive performance helped Warrenton earn a win over Hermann Friday night. 

Goldsmith scored the first eight points of the game and tallied 21 points to help Warrenton (8-5, 2-2 GAC North) earn a 51-37 win over Hermann Friday night. Goldsmith said he felt good in warmups prior to his 21-point output. 

“I was open for all those threes,” Goldsmith said. “I shot them. They went in. And I drove hard, hit that layup. It felt good to start out hot like that.” 

Warrenton Head Coach Mark Thomas thought Hermann’s defensive strategy played a part in Goldsmith’s opportunities on the offensive side of the ball. Hermann was face guarding Troy Anderson early, allowing Goldsmith room to score on the offensive end. Thomas said Goldsmith is a challenge to defend. He noted he gets his shot off quickly if he gets room to shoot. 

 “Our guys, in my opinion, aren’t selfish,” Thomas said. “They don’t care who scores. They just want to win the game. So, I think they do a great job sharing the basketball.”

Even with Goldsmith scoring 19 points in the first three quarters, Warrenton carried a slim 36-35 lead into the fourth quarter. Warrenton scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter to put Friday night’s game out of reach. Mason Thompson scored four of his 10 points on the 9-0 run to start the quarter. 

“We had a couple of moments there that gave me a little bit of pause and in questioning my decision making there,” Thomas said. “But for the most part, I’m confident in our guys’ ability to handle the ball and make free throws.” 

After Hermann trimmed the Warrenton lead to 13-11 at the end of the first quarter, Warrenton outscored Hermann 10-4 to start the second quarter to lead 23-15. Troy Anderson’s three free throws put Warrenton up by eight points with 2:43 remaining. Hermann ended the half on a 8-0 run. Hermann point guard John Hiatt hit a pair of three pointers and finished the half with 17 points. 

Goldsmith said one of Warrenton’s focuses in the second half was to stop Hiatt. 

“(Hiatt) was killing us out there,” Goldsmith said. “We just really had to shut him down or stop him for the most part and we would be better off there. But we had to get more defensive rebounds and just play better defense and we did that. And we executed our offense. So we had a really good game.”

Thomas said from the scout film they had, Hiatt is normally the point guard and in Thomas’ opinion, their best basketball player skill-wise. He noted Hiatt can score at all three levels and can handle the ball well. Thomas noted Hermann guard Easton Stiers hit nine three point field goals in their previous game.  

“We were face guarding him to have no catch,” Thomas said. “So then we decided to switch up to see if Mason (Thompson) could do a little, just a little different length. And then late we went to Troy (Anderson) because he’s got freakishly long arms. So it’s a challenge for anybody to drive past him or even shoot over him because you think that you have an open shot and then that arm goes up and it just keeps going. So that’s why we changed that, that match up there.” 

Hiatt did not score in the final quarter. 

The win pushed Warrenton’s winning streak to three games. Warrenton beat North Point 53-36 Tuesday to win their fourth consecutive game. Warrenton is 7-1 in their past eight games after starting the season 2-4. 

“I think these guys finally turned the corner in the fact that they’re not just out to play a game, they’re starting to no matter what the score is expecting that they should win and they believe it inside of them,” Thomas said. “I don’t care what it says up there on the scoreboard, we’re gonna fight back because we’re gonna win. So I think it’s nice to see that they’re maturing to that point.”