The Warrenton girls basketball team fell in their first GAC North conference matchup 41-36 against St. Charles on Dec. 17. The Warriors are now 1-4 on the season.

Warrenton was leading for the entire first half and walked into halftime up 19 10, but they were unable to adapt to the Pirates halftime changes.

“We were making mistakes and we didn’t make any adjustments,” Head Coach Hannah Logan said. “They had made adjustments at halftime of their zone and their defense and we could not adjust to it.”

The Warriors faced a tough loss after being up 12 points early in the third quarter to then being down one point with a minute left to go.

In the fourth quarter, senior Nyasia Love was able to tie the score 33-33 with three minutes left, and after that, the Warriors and Pirates went back and forth.

With less than a minute on the clock, Warrenton was down by only a point but St. Charles sank four free throws down the stretch.

“We just have to finish. We have got to stay committed in practice and we cannot get frustrated,” Logan said. “It has to be all of us wanting to win and putting in the hard work.”

Logan noted one of their team goals before heading into the game was to get to the free throw line 22 or 23 times. Warrenton found themselves in that spot 16 times throughout the game but only made four of them.

This is the team’s second game in a row where they have been forced to adjust their playing rotation with sophomore Sophia Benke out.

“Claire Goldsmith stepped up as a freshman and is starting. She did a very well job tonight,” Logan said.

Goldsmith was the leading scorer with 11 points. Love recorded eight, while  Zoe Duncan had seven.

Logan emphasized that this is not the end and their goal of achieving a third consecutive conference title still remains.

“We have to come back. We have to get Elsberry to get out of this slump of losing that we’re in and in the next conference game, we have to be ready to go,” Logan said.

Warrenton will play next at Elsberry on Dec. 19 at 6:30 p.m.