ROYAL CITY — Royal suffered two lopsided defeats last weekend in girls high school basketball, falling to Wahluke, 52-33, and Warden 48-21.

It’s not a matter of shooting. The Royal girls take enough shots. They just don’t make many of them go in.

Royal could have won Friday’s game at the free throw line. The Knights were awarded 39 charity tosses and made only 18.

“We got off to a slow start Friday and never fully recovered,” coach Phil Daubel said. “It’s tough to win games when you only shoot 14 percent from the floor. We got to the free throw line 39 times but only made 40 percent of those. We need to keep working.”

The best shooting percentage of the night was turned in by Bianca Castellon. She made two of six shots. Jennifer Ledezma, Royal’s battler under the basket, made one of 15 shots.

The leading scorer was Else Delgado, who made eight of 14 free throws. McDarra VonStein added seven points.

VonStein, who plays taller than her height, picked off 13 rebounds. Guadalupe Guadarrama had four.

If there was a silver lining in the Warden loss, it was that Royal limited the Cougars to fewer than 50 points. The offense was absent, with the Knights shooting nine percent from the field.

“We played decent defense, but with how we shot tonight you aren’t going to win many games,” Daubel said. The Knights were also hurt by 39 turnovers.

Royal played Highland last night. The Knights will travel to Kittitas tonight and then to Connell on Jan. 2.