WARDEN — After shaking off some early game nerves, the Warden Cougars dominated with its defense en route to a 76-15 win over Goldendale in the first round of the girls Eastern Washington Athletic Conference playoffs.

“There’s always some nerves, and I think we saw that a little bit in the first few minutes,” Warden Head Coach Josh Madsen said. ‘We had a few sloppy turnovers. It took us a few minutes to get our wits about us a little bit, but once we found our groove we looked pretty solid.”

The Cougars pressed the Timberwolves, forcing turnovers after inbound passes and in the Goldendale backcourt, then scored in transition off of the turnovers.

“We’ve been talking a lot about our defense and working on our defense, and just trying to focus on the little things,” Madsen said. “Flying around and helping each other, talking. The girls have been buying in, and we’ve been a little bit of a team lately because of it.”

Warden junior Lauryn Madsen, Josh Madsen’s daughter, said that defensive play is something the Cougars have been focusing on this season.

“It’s always defense that we’re really focused on,” Lauryn Madsen said. “We always set a goal at the beginning of the game of what we want to hold a team to … we definitely finished our goal.”

The Timberwolves didn’t score until there were less than two minutes remaining in the first quarter and didn’t reach double-digit points until the end of the third quarter.

“We held them to 15, and that was a lot below our goal,” Madsen said. “We’ve been talking and preaching about if we can commit to the defensive end, we can take that a long way through the playoffs. It’s good to see it play itself off during a game.”

Lauryn Madsen entered the game with the 1,000th career point in sight.

“I was a little nervous, I think it was around 10 points that I had to get – I knew it was manageable, but there’s always (the thought) that something could go wrong,” Lauryn Madsen said. “I was so excited when I hit that shot I knew it was my 1,000th point.”

The junior reached the mark on a drive to the basket that she was fouled on, later tacking on the free throw after a brief celebration on the court.

“It was a good bucket to get it on,” Lauryn Maden said. “It was cool to get the and-one on it.”

Friends and family in the Warden gym raised up signs to congratulate Lauryn Madsen on crossing the thousand-point mark on Thursday night.

“It was so cool to look up at the stands and everyone was on their feet,” Lauryn Madsen said. “It was super loud in here and all the posters went up – it was super fun.”

Josh Madsen credited his daughter’s teammates for helping her reach 1,000 points.

“It’s one of those things where it’s a cool accomplishment for her, but she doesn’t do it without a whole bunch of really good, unselfish teammates that share the ball really well,” Madsen said.

Warden went on to win 76-15 and advanced to the second round of the EWAC playoffs.

“It’s super cool to see in the first round that we can handle a team like that,” Lauryn Madsen said. “We’ve had our ups and downs this year with some of the losses, but I think this showed we have stuff to prove.”

Both Madsens said the Cougars are currently playing their best basketball.

“We started off a little rough, but I think our defense has improved tremendously,” Lauryn Madsen said. “And playing as a team has gotten us this far. Our offense has really picked up, and I think we’re on the right track right now.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.