It’s been one step forward and one step back for the Warrenton boys basketball team the last two seasons.

After breaking a near decade-long postseason losing streak in 2016, the Warriors were upset by No. 6 seed St. Dominic in last season’s district opener.

A year later, Warrenton heads to Hannibal as the No. 5 seed, and will face the host school Monday at 9 p.m. in the first round of the Class 4, District 8 Tournament.

“We hoped to be higher and we thought we deserved to be a little higher, but other coaches didn’t see it that way when we voted it out,” Warrenton Head Coach Mark Thomas said. “I told the guys that it doesn’t matter if you’re a No. 4 or No. 5 seed, it’s still the same game. We’ll just use it as motivation, and to go where you want to go, you have to win every game anyway.”

Hannibal is led by junior guard Dezi Jones, who is averaging more than 20 points this season.

Last month he set the Hannibal school record with 47 points against Marshall.

“He’s going to be a huge matchup issue for anybody they play, not only us,” Thomas said. “But we’ll have a plan in place to contain him and try to slow him down, so we’ll just do our best to stop him as well as the others.”

Thomas knows Jones’ ability as well as any opposing coach, because he coached Jones two years ago.

Thomas was the Hannibal head coach for three seasons before resigning in March of 2016.

“I know their personnel pretty well because it’s basically all the players I coached when I coached there,” he said. “I’ve stayed in contact with a lot of those guys, so I don’t think it will be weird to go back.” 

Smiling, he added: “I’m happy for all of their accomplishments, but I hope they have a bad night the night we see them.”

If the Warriors can get past Hannibal, they’ll have a quick turnaround.

The semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. against top-seeded Wentzville Liberty.

The Eagles had won 11 of their previous 13 games heading into Tuesday’s meeting with Fort Zumwalt South, and are led by senior guard Kale Catchings.

Catchings, who is committed to Harvard, is averaging 19.2 points and 6.3 rebounds this season.

“His little brother (Jayce, 16.2 ppg) is a pretty good player, too,” Thomas said. “They’ve lost three games since Christmas, and one was to Class 5 Hazelwood Central, so they’re legit. They’re going to be a really solid team, and we hope to get there and see them.”

For the Warriors to meet the Catchings brothers Tuesday night, they will have to buck the recent trend of postseason struggles.

And with a senior-laden team, Thomas believes he has the roster to make a run for the program’s first district title since 2000.

“I hope they come out with the goal to get a district win. We fell short of that last year, and we’d like to start there and go one game at a time,” he said. “It’s difficult the way that it falls because you don’t get a day to prepare, so you have to game plan for two teams in one practice. But hopefully we’ll have the guys keyed up and ready to go. We have five seniors on the team, so if they’re not ready for districts, I don’t know when they can be ready.”