WARDEN — Both the Cougar boys and girls picked up big wins over River View on Friday night, with the girls first winning 76-16 and the boys winning 74-56.

Warden Girls

The Cougars set the tone from the start of Friday’s game against the Panthers, using their press defense to force turnovers off of errant River View passes and build a big lead by moving the ball down the floor in transition. 

Warden led 22-4 after the first quarter, later taking a 52-8 lead into the halftime locker room. Leading the way in the first half was senior Lauryn Madsen with 15 points, junior Lauren Chamberlain with 13 points and freshman Makenna Klitzke with nine points.

“We’ve been trying to fine-tune some things, and I think (the press) was effective,” Warden girls basketball head coach Josh Madsen said. “We still have a ways ago — we’re not quite as active as I would like to be in a few spots — but we’re using some of these games as live reps.”

Warden’s success continued into the second half, putting another 20 points on the scoreboard in the third frame including three-pointers by Madsen, Klitzke and freshman Angelina Buck. Buck was one of four Cougars to finish the game with double figures in scoring (11), joining Lauryn Madsen (22), Chamberlain (19) and Klitzke (12).

“Every night we feel like we have plenty of girls who can do stuff,” Josh Madsen said. “Maybe somebody different steps up – it was nice to see Lauren Chamberlain get rolling tonight; she finished well and girls found her.”

Friday’s game was just the third game for the Cougars in a 16-day span, a stark contrast to the pre-holiday break schedule where Warden took the court for 13 games in 24 days.

“(It’s) different, we felt like we were drinking from a fire hydrant before Christmas,” Madsen said. “13 games before Christmas, so then we knew coming out of Christmas that it’d be the opposite. It is what it is, all we can do is play the games that are on the schedule.”

While Warden’s lighter schedule allows for more practice time, there were additional benefits to playing a busier schedule, Josh Madsen said. 

“It’s good, we had three games in three days a couple times earlier in the year to simulate state, so it’s good for us,” he said. “We have to be able to go and play, rest and recover quick and play again at, hopefully, a high level.”

Warden held River View to just four points in each quarter, the sixth time the Cougars have held an opponent to under 20 points this season.

“I feel like we played together really well tonight,” Klitzke said. “Our shooing’s usually a little bit better, but we did really well on offensive rebounds. In the second half, we only gave up one offensive rebound.”

Rounding out the scoring the Cougars were senior Molly Sackmann with seven points, senior Carina Martinez with three points and sophomore Megan Richins with 2 points.

“Overall, I thought we shared the ball well, and sometimes when you haven’t played in a while you might come out a little rusty or maybe we wouldn’t be super amped-up to play, but I thought our girls came out from the get-go ready to go, and that was encouraging to see,” Madsen said. 

Warden Boys

Similarly to the girls game, the Warden boys opened the first quarter on an impressive run, outscoring River View 22-7 through the first eight minutes of action.

“It sets the tone for the game; there are four quarters of basketball to play, but you always hope that when you start fast, you can finish fast also,” Warden boys basketball head coach Brent Erdmann said. “Setting the pace of that game was going to be big, because they’re a good team. They had a lot of length compared to us, and our kids were playing together.”

The Cougar lead was stretched to 21 going into halftime, later leading by 28 in the third quarter, though River View started to creep back into the game towards the end of the third quarter. 

“We actually came out of the locker room really well, which we don’t normally do,” Erdmann said. “We did (Friday) night; we had some mental errors, and I think we might have gotten a little tired, and let them back into it, but at the end of the game we were able to hold on and get the win.”

Erdmann credited the play of the Cougar guards — junior Anthony Gutierrez, senior Bubba Oronia and sophomore Eli Cox — for their play down the stretch to lead Warden to a 74-56 win.

“Those three young men, they were huge,” Erdmann said. “Them being those guards out there and controlling the ball. They are high school kids, so we’re going to make mistakes, but it’s something we’re building towards; being able to handle that pressure at the end.”

Gutierrez led the Cougars with 23 points Friday night, followed by Oronia and Cox, who both scored 14 points. A big part of Friday’s win was the Cougars coming together and playing as a team, Erdmann said. 

“When they’re starting to figure out (that when) we play together and don’t have to do it individually, we’re actually pretty good at it,” Erdmann said. “That was huge (Friday) night because the ball moved more than it has normally at Warden.”

After Saturday’s home game against Tri-Cities Prep, both the Warden boys and girls travel to Walla Walla Valley on Thursday evening. 

    Warden senior Lauryn Madsen, in white, defends against a River View player in the first quarter of the Cougars’ 76-16 win over River View.
  

    Warden junior Jake Roylance, in white, grabs the opening tipoff for the Cougars in their 74-56 win over River View.
  

    Warden freshman Makenna Klitzke (21) dribbles the ball down the floor in transition against River View Friday night.