In a time where athletes and coaches are afraid to talk about anything but the next game, the Warrenton girls basketball program saw no point in disguising its motivation this season.

Incarnate Word has been on its mind since October, if not earlier.

The Warriors knew if they were to capture their third consecutive district championship, it would likely earn them a meeting with the No. 1 team in Class 4 in their sectional.

And despite a close call in Friday’s District 8 championship game with St. Dominic, that’s exactly what happened.

The Red Knights are undefeated against Class 4 teams this year, their only losses in Missouri coming against Class 5 schools Hickmann and Kirkwood by an average of seven points.

They went 3-1 at the Nike Tournament of Champions in Arizona earlier this season, and went 1-1 at the Raatz Fence/O’Shea’s Basketball Classic at Mercy Academy in Kentucky in January.

Saturday, they beat St. Charles, 64-42, on the Pirates’ home court in the District 7 championship.

“Their guard-play is really stellar. They do a lot off the dribble and they can really create off of that,” Warrenton Head Coach Greg Williams said. “They have a high level of skill and athleticism, and then have some big girls in the post. Matchup-wise, they give us some interesting matchup problems. But we give them some interesting matchup problems right back.”

Junior guard Sonya Morris leads Incarnate with 15.1 points per game, but the Red Knights have five players who average at least seven points.

The sophomore duo of Rickie Woltman and Kiki Britzman lead the way with 6.5 and 5.4 rebounds, respectively.

Williams hopes the emergence of junior forward Kayla Nelson will give Warrenton an edge in the paint.

Nelson bumped her scoring average up from 6.7 to 11 points per game this season, and leads the Warriors with 7.2 rebounds.

Williams said playoff games against teams like Incarnate don’t come along very often.

“For me, it’s probably one of the games of my life,” he said. “Playing Vashon in the semifinals at state (while coaching the boys team at Eureka in 2001) was one of those games, and that’s been 16 years since I’ve had another shot at it. I want to make sure I’m ready, I want to make sure the kids are ready, and let’s go get it. I didn’t like the way it turned out the last time. We were down 12 at halftime to Vashon and we told ourselves we were doing a great job, and we ended up losing by 33.”

For some teams, the aura surrounding a program like Incarnate hinders their chances before the ball is tipped.

“Honestly, I think Incarnate Word is more about the hype than the actual players,” said Warrenton’s Jenny Jansen, who admitted the Warriors have watched film of Incarnate all year in anticipation of a sectional matchup. “Don’t get me wrong, they’re good. But I think more people are afraid of the school than the actual team. So if we can just get past that, I think we’ll be fine and be able to put up a good fight.”

Williams agreed.

“It’s going to come down to us competing, not turning it over, being aggressive and not bowing down to them because they have all those final fours. Enough of that. We’re going to get it done,” he said. “We’re going to get it done.”