WARDEN – The 2022 champion Warden Cougars are heading back to the 2B Girls State Basketball Tournament, entering this year’s state bracket with an 18-4 record and an Eastern Washington Athletic Conference Title.

“They’re excited to be there again, and understand this is a really cool opportunity for them,” Warden Head Coach Josh Madsen said. “I also think they’ve got some confidence about them as well. They’ve been playing pretty well and deserve to be there, and are looking forward to seeing what they can do once they get there.”

The Cougars haven’t lost a game since the start of the new year, carrying a 13-game win streak into this weekend’s regional round.

Madsen said the Cougars emphasized scheduling a taxing non-conference slate to prepare the team for postseason environments. Two of the Cougars’ losses came against Colfax and Okanogan, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the 2B state bracket.

“It definitely helped,” Madsen said. “That was back in December, and it feels like an eternity ago. Still, I think we draw from those games and some of those losses. We talk about those and let those fuel us to get better and keep pushing for more.”

Warden earned a No. 4 seed in the state tournament and will play against No. 5 Adna on Saturday in the regional round.

“We were really hoping to be a top-four seed, because we knew if we were a five or six (seed) that we were headed to the other side of the state,” Madsen said. “We wanted to avoid that. Not that we’re going to have a great home-court advantage in Ellensburg, but saving us that trip I think is going to be big.”

Adna enters the regional round with a 20-3 record this season, with one of those losses coming in the Southwest Washington 2B League title game.

“They’re balanced scoring-wise,” Madsen said. “They’ve got four girls in double-digit scores, so it’s going to be a tough matchup for us. We definitely look forward to the opportunity. It’s going to be a good matchup, the four-five is typically two very similar teams. Our styles are fairly similar, they’re happy to get out and run as we are. It’ll be fun.”

With the excitement of making it to Spokane Arena in the rearview mirror, Madsen said the focus this year is entirely on the court.

“At times last year, maybe we lost focus a little bit,” Madsen said. “I think this team, we’ve learned from that a little bit. We’re just really trying to stay in the moment – one day at a time, one practice at a time. Get ourselves prepared and we need to be able to play our best when it matters most.”

Warden and Adna tip-off at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Ellensburg High School.

“Everything (about the postseason is) more intense, everything just seems a little bit more important,” Madsen said. “Each possession is a bigger deal, and each defensive stop you get is a bigger deal. We’re really trying to hammer that home with the girls, we have to be locked in for 32 minutes now, every game.”

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