Warrenton came out Tuesday night about as well as its coach thought it would.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, it wasn’t pretty.

Troy’s hot shooting gave the Trojans an early 13-2 lead that forced Warrenton Head Coach Greg Williams to call a timeout.

“Time to start praying,” Williams recalled thinking. “Not being able to practice, and with finals going on and stuff, I assumed we wouldn’t come out great. But they (Troy) came out to play. They were executing their stuff and hitting shots, and it was a great challenge. But we need those kinds of games anyway, so I was happy to have it.”

Troy’s shooting regressed to the mean over the final 27 minutes and Warrenton escaped with a 60-52 win.

Jenny Jansen, who led all scorers with 25 points, didn’t know what to think during Troy’s early shooting barrage.

“They had some length and their shooters were shooting well, so that combination was kind of rough at first,” she said. “We’ve had a weird week with practices because of the ice storm, so we came out slow and then they were hitting about every shot. It was nerve-wracking at first, but I’m glad we were able to battle back and win.”

The Warriors went on an 11-2 run in the second quarter to cut their deficit to 20-18, and Rylie Cox’s layup in the final seconds tied the game at 26 at the half.

Cox and Kayla Nelson each finished with 12 points.

“It was nice to see Rylie shoot well, too,” Jansen said. “She’s been working hard in the gym lately, and it’s nice to see that hard work pay off for her.”

Troy mixed up its defenses in the first half, which confused Warrenton and led to multiple unforced turnovers.

Trojan forward Jordyn Rasco led her team with 19 points, while forward           Adene Edwards harassed the Warrenton front court.

“They do a lot of things well,” Williams said. “They had a size advantage on us and they kind of beat us up inside, so our post defense has to get better.”

Despite what appeared to be fluky outside shooting success from Troy, Williams was still upset with his perimeter defense in the first half.

“The theory I have is that open shots get you beat, and we left them open and they hit them,” he said. “You can’t let people come into your gym and put up double digits, that shouldn’t happen.”

Warrenton came out of the locker room and outscored Troy 10-2 in the first two minutes.

Troy responded with consecutive 3-pointers, but the Warriors kept their opponent at arm’s length the rest of the way.

“It’s encouraging because it shows you the heart of these kids. They didn’t have their ‘A’ game, but they still found a way to win,” Williams said. “We have girls with two, three and four years of varsity experience, and most teams don’t have that. We draw from that experience.”

Warrenton enters the winter break in first place in the Gateway Athletic Conference North with a 6-1 record.

“We just have to keep getting better,” Williams said. “We saw some things tonight that better teams can expose us to.”