WARDEN — Having graduated five seniors from last year’s state championship-winning team, the Warden girls basketball team has spent the first 14 games of the season developing various players.

The Cougars are 10-4 with a 5-0 record in league play.

“We’ve viewed this season as a building process,” Head Coach Josh Madsen said. “We’ve got some younger girls and girls with less varsity experience that we’re trying to bring along and hopefully get them to the point where they’re really comfortable and ready to contribute at a high level come February and March.”

It hasn’t been just one or two stars carrying the team to its winning start, according to Madsen, but more of a collective effort.

“Different girls on different nights are stepping up and doing some things,” he said. “For me, the interesting part’s going to be when we get to district playoffs moving forward, seeing who is going to really step up. That’s what I’m curious to see.”

The season began with a six-point road loss to Cashmere, a 1A school that has started the season 9-4. Seven of Warden’s first nine games this year came against teams that have currently won at least 11 games this year or are a classification above the 2B Cougars.

“We had a really difficult early season schedule, and that was by design,” Madsen said. “...We knew there was a good chance we were going to have some losses, and I was good with that so long as we’re learning from them.”

Back in December, Warden suffered a setback when it lost three of five games over an 11-day stretch. Madsen said that the goal this season was to schedule tougher competition to prepare the younger team for what it’s like to play in postseason competition.

“We had a five-game stretch there where we played some really tough teams and went 2-3 during that five-game stretch,” Madsen said. “But we’re a better team for it, and I think we’re more prepared now.”

The Cougars have rattled off five-straight wins to begin the new year, including back-to-back 50-point victories last week over Dayton-Waitsburg (66-14) and River View (66-15).

“Just settling into who we are and who we want to be,” Madsen said of what has led to the winning streak. “I think we’ve made strides defensively, for sure. On offense, figuring out our identity and then when we run stuff, run it more clean. Run it more effectively.”

With only five regular season matchups remaining, Madsen said he expects the Cougars to kick things up a notch in preparation for districts, and a potential bid for the state tournament on the line.

“We’re gonna really ramp it up now,” Madsen said. “The final weeks of the regular season leading to the playoffs, we’re gonna really try and put our foot down and finish the regular season strong. Make sure we’re confident, make sure we’re playing the style we want to play and then take that, hopefully, into the playoffs.

Warden faces off against Walla Walla Valley Academy at home on Thursday, with tipoff at 6 p.m.

Warden Roster

No. 0 Lauryn Madsen, junior guard

No. 3 Quinn Erdmann, senior guard

No. 5 Carina Martinez, junior guard

No. 10 Kaylee Erickson, senior guard

No. 12 Aliza Leinweber, junior wing

No. 20 Molly Sackmann, junior forward

No. 21 Jlynn Rios, senior guard

No. 32 Lauren Chamberlain, sophomore forward

No. 44 Lexi Leinweber, senior post