A few days after losing in the Class 4 sectional to St. Charles, a weary-eyed Greg Williams walked past the gym before school and saw junior guard Jordan Todd and freshman guard Allison Tonioli putting up shots.

“I told them to take some time off,” the Warrenton Head Coach said. “But some of the girls came in because it’s in their blood.”

Williams’ instructions for rest were clear because he believes his team ran out of gas in the second half of the season.

Warrenton (21-6) played 17 games in the final six weeks of the season — nearly every other day — and ended the year 11-5 after starting out 10-1.

The small rotation got smaller when Amanda Lafaver, the only senior on the team, injured her elbow Jan. 15 against Duchesne and missed most of the rest of the season.

“Only having one senior, and her getting injured, was a real setback,” Williams said. “But the girls stepped up.”

Without Lafaver in the lineup, the Warriors played no more than seven girls — and sometimes six — in close games.

Junior forward Jenny Jansen led the team with 17.1 points and 8.1 rebounds.

Jansen, who is committed to play softball at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, had what Williams called a “really busy year” after winning a state softball championship and emerging as one of the best basketball players in school history.

“She’s been really pushing softball, and now that she is signed, sealed and delivered, I think she will dedicate a little more time to basketball,” Williams said. “And we’re going to be really thankful for it.”

Jansen led the Warriors in scoring nearly every night, and Williams has called her one of the most reliable scorers he has coached.

Alongside Jansen on the perimeter were a pair of sophomores, Rylie Cox and Ashtyn Dixon.

The duo upped their combined scoring from 4.1 points a game last season to 13 this year, and Cox hounded opposing point guards defensively all season.

But the defensive intensity came with a price, and Williams hopes his team has fresher legs a year from now.

“We need to be deeper,” he said. “We were only playing six or seven girls and there was definitely fatigue down the stretch.”

Williams said he is looking forward to a more balanced schedule next season.

The Warriors are expected to play Montgomery County before Thanksgiving break and travel to Quincy Notre Dame the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

But he was quick to note that a more balanced schedule isn’t as important as having more players ready to contribute, which brought him back to the early morning workout he witnessed.

“We’re starting to get kids that are basketball players first,” he said. “And that’s huge.”

Todd and Tonioli combined to average five points this season, but Williams expects both players to be in the rotation next fall.

The starting five of Jansen, Cox, Dixon, junior guard Kaylee Anderson and sophomore forward Kayla Nelson appears to be set.

Nelson, who averaged 6.6 points and 5.4 rebounds, will be the only returning post player with significant varsity experience.

“She really came into her own,” Williams said. “She plans on doing some things this summer to clean up her inside scoring, and next year she’ll get us those easy points we couldn’t get the other night against St. Charles.”

Speaking of St. Charles, which beat the Warriors three times this season, Williams said the physical differences were impossible to ignore.

“They just handled us,” he said. “And we’ve got to be ready for that.”

The Warriors plan on introducing plyometrics to their offseason workouts to try and preserve their bodies for another long summer and fall of softball or volleyball, followed by what Williams hopes is a deeper run on the court.

“We accomplished a lot of firsts this year,” he said. “We had never won 20 games in a season or won our own tournament, and we obviously won our district for the second time ever. Now it’s time to start winning sectionals and quarterfinals.”