Kayla Nelson didn’t mince words after Warrenton’s 58-40 win at St. Charles Tuesday night, and for good reason.

It was the program’s first win over its conference rival since Feb. 16, 2007 — 16 straight losses.

“It feels good to beat them,” Nelson said. “Coming in here tonight and blowing them out of the water feels so good.”

If anyone deserved to blow off steam after breaking an almost decade-long drought, it was Nelson.

The junior forward scored 21 points to lead all scorers, including eight second-quarter points as Warrenton built a 30-17 halftime lead.

“Once I get a couple going in, I’m like ‘OK, let’s do this. This is fun,’ ” she said. “We executed all of our plays really well, and I’m proud of all the girls for what they did.”

Warrenton Head Coach Greg Williams knew his teams had struggled against St. Charles, and he knew he was personally 0-for-5 against the Pirates.

But the magnitude of the streak surprised him.

“Well get the monkey off my back,” he said. “I didn’t know it was that big of a gorilla.”

Unlike previous trips to St. Charles, the Warriors (4-1) held a one-point lead after one quarter.

“Before when we’d come here, we’d call early timeouts down 18-4 or something,” Williams said. “Tonight we built a lot of confidence and we just went after it. And once we had the lead we weren’t going to give it up.”

Senior guard Kaylee Anderson knocked down an early 3-pointer and finished with nine points thanks to a shrinking St. Charles defense.

“We knew if we wanted to win, we had to give it to Nelly and pound it inside and let her work down low,” Anderson said. “And when they collapsed we could work from the outside.”

Anderson said the team talked before the game about taking an early lead over their rival in the Gateway Athletic Conference North.

“Us seniors have never beaten St. Charles in four years, so just coming out and playing hard and winning that like makes it even better,” she said. “Coach said if we win this game we have a really good shot of winning conference.”

The Warriors outscored the Pirates 18-6 in the second quarter as Nelson and senior forward Jenny Jansen scored eight points each.

Jansen connected on two 3-pointers and finished with 16.

“Inside-out is the way to go,” Williams said. “You want to get the defense to collapse, and getting them to overplay something will give us opportunities. The girls are figuring out if they can pass it inside, they’ll have an open shot.”

Having a post player that demands the defense’s attention is the first step, and Nelson worked on her game extensively over the summer.

Williams called her the team’s most improved player.

“She worked really hard at trying to improve,” he said. “She comes in early, she stays late. She did it all summer and her hard work has paid off. Before, we couldn’t get those easy baskets, but now we can throw it inside and get something done, and I couldn’t be more proud of her tonight.”