The Warrenton boys’ basketball team was in firm control of its Class 5 District 4 quarterfinal on Tuesday – until it wasn’t.

The Warriors, playing as the No. 6 seed, led third-seeded and host Parkway Central from late in the first quarter until the game’s final minutes when the Colts overtook Warrenton in the 50-41 victory.

Warrenton senior guard Deadrick Forrest said, even in the season’s end, he felt nothing but pride for the way the Warriors (9-18) played against the much taller Colts (18-9).

“You’ve got to ride the highs and you’ve got to let the lows go,” Forrest said. “We couldn’t seem to do that. We can get on a good run but when other teams go on their run, we struggle to stop them. I think we finally played team basketball and we showed what we could do. We just didn’t finish the game.”

Warrenton led 11-10 after the first quarter, 23-18 at halftime, and 37-31 at the end of the third quarter. Senior guard Brodey Meier was the engine behind the team’s hot start as he scored 14 of his game-high 17 points in the first half.

The Warriors’ lead reached double digits in the second half, at 36-27 late in the third quarter, before Central rallied.

Meier summed up the game philosophically.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” Meier said. “Shots fall, shots don’t. It’s frustrating, but that’s just the game of basketball.”

After Meier’s 17, Forrest pitched in seven in the defeat.

Warrenton coach Mark Thomas said he took great pride in watching his team finish its season the way it did. Even though there were costly moments down the stretch, the team’s body of work, as a whole, on Tuesday was a memorable one.

“This time of year, little things are big things,” Thomas said. “We had some turnovers in the fourth that we just didn’t overcome. I can’t say enough about the effort that they gave tonight. I’m so proud of the way they played so hard, the focused and they played together. They attacked a much larger opponent, size-wise. Each of our big guys was chomping at the bit to get in there.”