By Jamie HansenRecord Staff WriterWarrenton hung tight in the first quarter of a game at Class 5 Francis Howell Central Tuesday night, but a sloppy second quarter spelled trouble for the Warrior basketball team.The Spartans defeated Warrenton, 80-61.Central jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the early minutes of the game, but Warrenton battled back, eventually tying the game at 7-7 with a steal and a bucket by sophomore Brenden Smith with four minutes left in the first quarter.Central’s Dominic Horace nailed a 3-pointer to push the lead back to 10-7. That tie was as close as the Warriors would get the entire game.A basket by senior Braydan Chmiel at the buzzer reduced Central’s lead to 18-15 at the end of the first quarter.That’s when the Spartans’ speed at the guard position really took over.Central’s Marcus James drove to the hoop and got the floater to fall in the beginning of the second quarter to extend the lead to 20-15. The junior scored a team-high 18 points, nine of which came in the second quarter.Warrenton coach Mike Uffmann commended Central’s quickness.“That guard (Central’s James) is really quick,” Uffmann said. “Our plan was to have two comeback guys and jam them right away, but he still got back before us. It’s tough to simulate that in practice. They are a good ball club. They are 4-0 for a reason.”The Spartans’ quickness on defense also gave the Warriors fits – Warrenton turned the ball over six times in the second quarter. Warrenton shot 42 percent from the field in the first half, while Central connected on 12 of 26 shots from the floor in the half.Warrenton tried to creep back into it with aggressive play inside the paint, but the Central defense made that difficult. Central led going into intermission 40-29.“That was our big point of emphasis coming into the game was to stop that,” Uffmann said. “They’re quick. They put four guys out there and their post is quick also. He can play more of a guard too, so we knew they were going to get out there and go.”Warrenton again struggled with turnovers in the third quarter with six. James again shined offensively for the Spartans, scoring six points in the third quarter. The Warriors found a spark near the end of the third quarter in Smith. The sophomore hit a 3-pointer from the corner and was fouled. He connected on the free throw to make the score 53-40 near the end of the quarter. Smith scored a game-high 19 points for Warrenton.A 7-0 run capped off by Smith’s third 3-pointer of the came cut Central’s lead to 65-56 with just over four minutes remaining. But Central connected on 20-of-23 chances from the free-throw line in the game, including 9-of-10 in the final eight minutes.“I told the boys they have until midnight, and then tomorrow we have to get better and prepare for the two other teams we play this week,” Uffmann said. “Our next two games are completely different. I guess that’s the great thing about high school basketball. We’ll have three different game plans. Winfield is going to come out and play hard.”For Warrenton, sophomore Caleb Strauss scored 14 points and pulled down 13 rebounds. Chmiel chipped in 13 points, while junior Trevor Alberternst scored 11 points.The loss drops Warrenton to 2-3 on the season, while Central remains unbeaten. The Warriors have a busy week ahead, opening conference play Thursday at Winfield and capping off the week with a road trip to St. Louis to take on Eureka Friday in the GAC/Suburban Shootout at Missouri Baptist University.Will play in GAC/Suburban Shootout Friday