MATTAWA - The Warden High School girls basketball team dropped two games over the weekend, losing to Wahluke 35-30 Saturday and to Royal 45-34, Friday.

The Cougars hit the road to take on the Warriors, but returned home after a close five point defeat.

The low scoring game was competitive over the entire 32 minutes of action as the Cougars led 7-5 after the first quarter, but trailed 19-13 at the break.

Wahluke came out strong in the third quarter to race out to a 31-18 lead.

But Warden answered back with a 12-4 run in the fourth to cut the lead to five.

However, it wasn't enough to pull out a come from behind win.

Iris Rodriguez scored 12 points to lead the Cougar effort.

"It was a hard fought, very physical game," coach Kristin Brandt said. "We made a lot of mistakes offensively and missed free throws. But the girls didn't give up in the end and I'm proud of them for that."

Royal 45

Warden 34

The Lady Cougars hosted the Knights Friday, but had trouble getting on track in the first half of action as the team struggled trouble with Royal's scrappy defense. The first half scoring was close as the Knights led 10-9 after the first quarter of action and 21-13 at intermission.

Warden's offense heated up in the second half of play, as the team pumped in 21 points. But it wasn't enough to pull out the win as the Cougars lost the game by  double digits, 45-34.

Hannah Ahmann was high scorer for Warden with 10 points.

"Royal city came out in a tough triangle and two on Iris, which made it really hard for us to score against," Brandt said. "We got a lot of good looks, but didn't finish."

Warden is back in action Thursday when the team travels to River View to take on the Panthers.