WARDEN — The Warden Cougars (0-3) fell to the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague/Washtucna Broncos (1-1) 58-45 on Saturday. Despite the loss, head coach Emily Cox said this game showed how far they’ve come in the last year.  

“I thought the girls overall did really well,” Cox said. “They came to play, they worked hard and really were trying to clean up and do our fundamentals better. I felt like (in) this game they did better.”  

The Cougars started strong in the first quarter by taking a 13-9 lead. However, the Broncos responded in the second to go into halftime with a 29-25 lead over Warden. In the second half, the Cougars hung close with LRS, but ultimately the game escaped them in the fourth quarter and the Broncos took the win.  

“Throughout the second quarter, we didn't take care of the ball, probably as well as we should have,” Cox said. “They have a solid team. We just kind of got down in the second quarter, and then they hit some shots at the end of the third, and a couple at the end of the fourth quarter. We got some looks, but we just shots didn't go in.”  

After suffering a loss in their first game of the season, Head Coach James Saetre was happy to see his players go into a Saturday game with energy.  

“I thought we came out with good energy, and we battled with Warden for a while there. It was a good game for those girls to have on a Saturday after Friday, (that) was a really tough game,” Saetre said.  

After starting fast in the first quarter, the Broncos capitalized on the Cougars' turnovers to take the lead. They rode the momentum shift to a four-point lead at halftime. Even with the 29-25 lead, the Cougars were still not going away quietly.  

Cox said her players were showing signs of growth from the last time they played the Broncos last season.  

“We had a really strong start, which was fun to see the girls come out swinging and working hard. Just really finding each other and playing off of each other, and kind of knowing where everybody should be and getting more comfortable playing with each other, really in our offense and being scrappier on defense and those types of things,” she said.  

In the third quarter, Warden continued to keep the game close, but Lind-Ritzville kept a strong hold of the momentum. They kept the deficit within five points heading into the fourth quarter thanks to a few Warden players hitting big shots down the stretch, Cox said. However, the Broncos hit a couple of threes early in that quarter to widen the gap.  

“A couple of those girls stepped up and hit some late-game shots. We just couldn't recover. I think they hit like two or three back-to-back threes and so that just kind of put us down, and we couldn't get any of our shots to fall to battle back from that,” Cox said.  

The Broncos’ success shooting the ball late in the fourth quarter allowed them to run away with the game and seal the 58-45 win. Cox was still proud of the fight her team showed against Lind-Ritzville, she said.  

She told them in the locker room afterward that they can grow and build off this game going forward. She said she was pleased to see her players openly agree and respond to the loss in a positive way. She noted her roster overall is on the younger side, so focusing on improving throughout the season is a key goal for them.  

“We lost, but overall, we looked at it as a success. We've definitely grown and changed from last year and at the end of the day, it's just step by step we're building and trying to reach goals. These girls show up and work hard every day to be better one day at a time,” Cox said.  

Saetre said he was happy to see Lind-Ritzville bounce back from the loss and get their first win of the season, but is looking forward to continuously improve as the season continues.  

“I know offensively, we weren't really shooting as good as a team as I know we can, some shots that (we missed) girls probably were like, ‘I make that 10 out of 10 times,’ so I think keeping them positive on the defensive end, that's key for us. As long as we're playing tough defense, our offense will follow,” Saetre said.  

The Broncos host Columbia on Tuesday at 6 p.m. 

The Cougars return to the court Friday to host La Salle at 5:30 p.m. Cox said they will work on ball movement and limiting turnovers as they try to bounce back and earn their first win of the 2025 season. She said if they can do that, the wins will come their way. As they look at their season overall, Cox remains optimistic about what the Cougars can accomplish this season.  

“I think for us, making it to the postseason for these girls would be huge at this age, and then being able to just keep building and developing those skills and sharpening their tools so that we can win more games,” she said.  

BOX SCORE:  

LRTZ: 9-20-9-20: 58 

WRDN: 13-12-8-12: 45 

    The Cougars’ Amaya Erickson (5) shoots a free throw against the Broncos on Saturday. Cougars Head Coach Emily Cox said despite her team being young, they showed a lot of fight and growth in their game against the Broncos.
  

    Piper Cox (14) looks to pass the ball back into play while Zoe Galbreath (1) plays aggressive defense.
  

    Saige Galbreath (2) steps up to guard Piper Cox (14) at the perimeter during their game on Saturday.