After falling behind by six points early in Tuesday night’s home opener, the Warrenton Lady Warriors solved the Silex press defense and used a balanced offensive attack to earn their first win of the season. 

Warrenton (1-1) beat the Owls 72-57 in their first home game of the regular season. The Lady Warriors had three players reach double figures in points and eight players contribute to the scoring in the win. Warrenton was led by post players Nevaeh Hill, who scored 20 points and Sophi Mueller, who scored 18 points. 

“Our main thing for tonight was if we get it inside, we’ll be ok,” Warrenton girls basketball coach Hannah Logan said. “We were bigger on the inside. So yes, when we got it in, we had good looks.”

Freshman guard Sophia Benke also reached double figures in points for the Lady Warriors. She finished the game with 15 points. 

Warrenton erased an early 7-1 deficit and led the rest of the game after taking a 9-7 lead with 3:20 remaining in the first quarter. Warrenton went on a 10-0 run after a timeout to erase the deficit and take an 11-7 lead. Hill scored eight points on the 10-0 run. 

“We called the timeout and we just talked about we have to be able to handle the basketball,” Logan said. “They were pressing us and they knew that speeding us up was working. So I told my guards that one of them had to step up. It was time for them to be a leader. It starts with them. They had to be able to control the basketball. We can’t just get it to the wing or get it to the post. It has to go from the guard to the wing or the guard to the post.” 

Warrenton took advantage of multiple fast break opportunities once they broke the pressure defense for layups or wide open shots. Logan stressed if the Lady Warriors could handle the initial line of pressure, there were opportunities for layups or open shots. 

Logan also thought there were transition opportunities during the game. 

“I thought we could beat them down the floor if we transitioned fast,” Logan said. “And we did get good looks once we did. But we also need to learn the difference when it is time to push it and when it’s time to hold back and make smart decisions.” 

Warrenton built a 10-point lead early in the third quarter before Silex went on a 7-2 run to cut the Warrenton lead to five points. The Lady Warriors responded with a 10-0 run to retain control of the game. Mueller scored five points during Warrenton’s 10-0 run. 

“Our goal coming out of halftime was we were up nine,” Logan said. “We are gonna keep building. They’re gonna make runs on us, but… we have to keep stretching it out. Might get down to five, but then we got to figure out a way to get a bigger leap.”

The Lady Warriors battled foul trouble throughout the game, with Hill fouling out in the final minute of the game and multiple teammates finishing the game with four fouls. Logan noted they had three players in foul trouble in their regular season opener against Troy. Logan said the Lady Warriors are still working on knowing the difference between a silly foul and a good foul. 

“We just really have got to narrow down the fouling. It cannot happen,” Logan said. 

Logan credited the contributions from the bench to help the Lady Warriors overcome the foul trouble. She specifically noted Zoe Duncan scoring four points in the second quarter coming off the bench. 

Two games into the season, Logan thinks the Lady Warriors are trending in the right direction. 

“The one thing I remember and I remind the girls we are young,” Logan said. “And when I say we are young, we have a lot of first experiences on varsity getting real big minutes. So we are young because we don’t have the exposure. We don’t have the experience. So I think each time they get to play, they just keep growing and gaining more confidence.”