WARDEN - The Cougars played two highly contested league basketball games over the weekend.

On Friday Warden hosted last year's league champion Kiona-Benton, then hit the road to Kennewick to take on the River View Panthers Saturday.

Ki-Be 47

Warden 44

Jerry Reyes knocked down 15 points and Garritt Marks added 13 as Warden nearly pulled off a come from behind upset win at home over the Bears Dec. 14.

The Cougars gave Ki-Be all they could handle, trailing 14-12 at the end of the first quarter. Warden put 10 points on the board to the Bears 8 in the second quarter and went into the locker room knotted up, 22-22.

But a 14-5 run by Ki-Be in the third quarter of action was the undoing for the Cougars. Warden outscored the Bears 17-11 in the fourth quarter of action, but was unable to pull out the win.

"Ki-Be returned a core of players, so it was a real challenge to open league play with them," coach Wes Richins said. "They have two really good guards and two good bigs in the middle, but we came out with some intensity and went into the locker room tied at 22.  They went up by 9 in the third quarter, but  we made a last run to close the gap to 3 points with under a minute to go."

Reyes helped fuel the comeback with 8 of his 15 points coming in the final eight minutes of the game.

"Although we lost, it was one of our best efforts of the year," Richins said.

Warden 27

River View 23

Warden took to the road Saturday for its second game of the weekend and came away with a hard fought 4-point win over the Panthers.

"The score is not a misprint," Richins said. "Both teams played tremendous, intense defense." 

Neither team shot the ball well either as one might imagine in the low scoring contest, Richins.said.

"There really wasn't many shots taken, but  bodies were flying all over the place," he said. "We took a 14-12 lead into the locker room and each team scored only five in the third quarter."

The Cougars went on a mini 8-6 run in the fourth quarter of play and we were able to hold on for their first league victory. 

"This was the best defensive effort of the year ... even better than Friday's game," Richins said. "We are really starting to come together defensively, and are going to need to keep up the effort as we face Zillah, one of the top two ranked teams in the state Tuesday."

Marks led the offensive attack for Warden with 13 points. He also pulled down 10 rebounds.

Reyes had 6 points and 8 boards, Nate Cole added 4 points, and Louie Reyes finished with 4 steals.

The win over River View put Warden at 1-1 in league play and 3-3 overall.