With 40 percent of his starting lineup in jeans watching the game from the bench, Warrenton Head Coach Greg Williams did something he hates last week.

He played a zone defense.

“We’re really, really young right now with the injuries that we have, and they just aren’t ready for man-to-man right now,” Williams said after his team’s 35-22 loss to Gateway Athletic Conference North rival St. Charles. “So we had to go with the 2-3 zone, and that’s just something that we don’t do very often.”

With junior forward Allison Tonioli out with concussion symptoms and senior guard Rylie Cox battling nagging back pains, sophomore Lexi Frederick and freshman Morgan Frye were vaulted into the starting lineup.

And for one half of basketball, the zone defense and inexperienced starting lineup didn’t hurt Warrenton.

The Warriors trailed 14-13 after two quarters thanks to five points each from senior guard Ashtyn Dixon and senior forward Kayla Nelson.

But a series of offensive rebounds and timely shooting gave St. Charles a 26-18 lead heading into the fourth quarter, and the Pirates wouldn’t relinquish control of the game.

“We had a few breakdowns discipline-wise, they hit some runners and we missed some rebounds,” Williams said. “When you play zone, you’ve got to rebound, and that bit us a little bit. Not being able to pass and shoot in the right situations hurt us too. We had a lot of inexperience out there and we lost the game offensively.”

After giving up 18 points in almost 24 minutes of action, St. Charles Head Coach Ben Owens appeared to want to shorten the game and limit possessions.

The Pirates held the ball for the final two minutes of the third quarter before knocking down a 3-pointer with four seconds left for a 26-18 lead.

In the fourth quarter, St. Charles’ first nine possessions that weren’t fast breaks lasted an average of 36 seconds.

“He told me he hated to do that, but I told him you have to play to win the game,” Williams said. “He was smart in doing it. So we had to come out and guard them man-to-man, and we’re just not there.”

Warrenton struggled offensively most of the night against St. Charles’ 3-2 zone.

The Pirates smothered Nelson in the post and Warrenton shooters were unable to consistently hit shots on the perimeter.

“We didn’t shoot well,” Williams said. “We were probably 50 percent from the free-throw line or less, and we were shooting too many airballs. If you’re a high school kid, you’ve got to hit the rim.”

Williams hopes Tonioli and Cox can rejoin the team in the near future, and he expects the Feb. 23 rematch with St. Charles in Warrenton to be a more competitive affair.

“We’ll get healthy and we’ll get right and I think we’ll take care of business,” he said. “Now we have to run the table to get a share of the conference title. They’ll have to come back to our place, and I like our chances there.”