Warrenton Head Coach Greg Williams wasn’t aware that last year’s district championship was the first of its kind for the Warrenton girls basketball program.

The No. 2 seed Warriors knocked off No. 1 Kirksville in the championship game, 50-48, before losing to St. Charles West in sectionals.

One year later, Warrenton (19-5) is the top seed in the Class 4, District 8 tournament, and Williams hopes last year’s run doesn’t become a historical footnote at Warrenton High School.

Kirksville received the No. 2 seed this year, and a title-game rematch is expected Friday night in Hannibal.

The Warriors will have to get by Mexico (7-17) Thursday at 4:30 p.m. for a shot at the district title.

Warrenton escaped with a 40-39 road win over Mexico Jan. 2 in the Gary Filbert Classic, thanks to a buzzer-beating shot in the lane by junior forward Jenny Jansen.

“That was one of our worst games of the year,” Jansen said. “Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. Mexico is one of those teams that can always surprise you, so you can’t take them lightly.”

The Warriors, who reeled off six straight wins after the win over Mexico, struggled with fatigue down the stretch and lost three of their final seven games.

A back-loaded schedule had Warrenton play 10 games in February and five games in the final 11 days of the regular season.

“We’ve taken this time off to clean some things up and make some adjustments,” Williams said of the eight-day layoff. “We had a stretch there with so many games and we were battling fatigue, so this has been a good time for us to rest up and get well.”

After being shut down twice by St. Charles’ 3-2 zone, Warrenton expects to see similar defenses in the postseason and has worked on its zone offense this week.

Williams has a few wrinkles he expects to introduce in the postseason, but chose not to divulge.

“We keep those in-house,” he said with a laugh. “You’ll see some things that will be a little bit different. You always try to keep a few pearls in the bag in case someone has properly scouted you.”

But with a 19-5 record and the best roster in the district, he didn’t want to change too much this late in the season.

“There will be a little bit of a new look to the Warriors,” he said. “But we were 19-5 doing what we were doing, so we don’t want to change a whole lot.”

What they were doing, for the most part, was feeding Jansen.

The junior forward averaged 17.6 points in the regular season and scored over 20 points 11 times.

And when defenses keyed in on Jansen, junior guard Kaylee Anderson capitalized with 40 3-pointers (38.8 percent).

After senior forward Amanda Lafaver suffered a torn ligament in her elbow Jan. 15 and missed the next month, sophomore forward Kayla Nelson successfully filled in without much of a dropoff.

She scored a then-season-high 13 points in a Jan. 21 win over Winfield and has finished in double figures three times since, averaging 6.9 points on the season.

“Somebody had to step up,” Williams said. “There was a little slippage there, but Kayla has found her confidence and I actually think it made us stronger. (Sophomore forward) Allison Haller has stepped up and improved, too. I think we have three good options now that we can put into that spot.”

Jansen said the familiarity with the district opponents should help Warrenton repeat as champions.

“I think we have the confidence going into it that we’re going to win,” she said. “We just need to put the ball in the basket.”

Williams said his team has been building for a postseason run since the beginning of the season.

“We didn’t work this hard all season to go into districts and not win it,” he said.

The district championship is Friday at 6 p.m.