WINFIELD – Third was the word Saturday afternoon for the Warrenton boys basketball team.

Pulling away in the third quarter, the Warriors defeated the hosts 52-41 to claim third place at the Winfield Tipoff Classic.

Three seniors notched double-digits scoring figures for Warrenton. Point guard Brett Smith had a team-high 14 points, shooting guard Travis Toebben scored 13 and forward Sam Toenges notched his first double-double of the campaign with 12 points and 12 rebounds (five offensive).

The score was knotted at 13 after the first quarter and Warrenton clung to a narrow 26-25 advantage at intermission before outscoring Winfield 11-5 in the next period and 16-10 in the fourth

Senior Brenden Day chipped in with four points and three rebounds. Fellow senior Archie Pearce knocked down a bucket on his only shot of the contest and sophomore Kolby Meine had the most productive outing of his short varsity career with seven points, four assists and four steals.

The matchup was a prequel of two more to come this season between the Warriors of Warren County and Warriors of Lincoln County with Winfield hosting again on Jan. 24 and a game at Warrenton on Valentine’s Day for Gateway Athletic North Conference play.

Saturday’s triumph was a bounce back for No. 6 Warrenton, which beat No. 3 Ft. Zumwalt East 60-41 in the tourney’s opening round before dropping its first game of the season in a 62-40 loss versus No. 2 Timberland in last Thursday’s semifinals.

Warrenton struggle offensively against the Wolves, shooting 34.8 percent from the floor, while knocking down just 1-of-12 shots from behind the arc.

Toebben had a team-best 13 points and Toenges had 11 points and six rebounds.

The Wolves, who won last year’s tournament, jumped out to a 17-7 advantage after the first quarter and led by double-digits throughout, though they were outscored 15-9 in the third.

Senior-laden Timberland was paced by 16 and 15-point efforts from Blake Lyerla and Ethan Markovich and also benefited from Luke Busateri’s nine points and nine rebounds.

However, Timberland tumbled in the championship game, dropping to No. 1 O’Fallon Christian, which was unbeaten until losing 61-56 at Westminster Tuesday.

Roddy Alexander put up 20 points and Kalin Black had 15 points and 11 rebounds to help Christian dispatch the Wolves.

Toebben represented Warrenton on the Tipoff Classic All-Tournament team and was joined by Christian’s Alexander, Timberland’s Lyerla, Winfield’s Kannon Schutte and Patrick Baalmann of the home-schooled St. Louis Knights.

Warrenton last won Winfield’s tournament, formerly referred to the BOOM Classic, in 2016 when it defeated Timberland 66-63 in overtime of the championship game, behind a monster performance from Caleb Strauss, who had 23 points and 11 rebounds.

The 2019-20 Warriors are 4-1 and hosted Holt Wednesday after Record Deadline. They’re off until Dec. 20 when they visit St. Charles West to begin GAC North play