Breaking through big time, Cougars win

WARDEN - Up until Tuesday night, the Warden Cougars basketball team had not really secured a signature win for the current campaign.

After their game that evening against visiting Entiat, the Cougars have a real John Hancock to show the rest of the Central Washington South 2B from here on out.

The Cougars rallied early and then held off a late Entiat charge to pull out a 57-53 win and move to 4-8 overall and 2-3 in league play.

Warden trailed 12-9 at the end of the first quarter before making a run on a very competitive Entiat (6-8, 2-4) squad to take a 27-24 lead at halftime.

"We started the game with very cold shooting," Warden head coach Wes Richins said. "The team made a nice adjustment and went inside and got our bigs into the game."

One of those 'bigs' was Garritt Marks who finished the game with 12 points and 16 rebounds. While Marks was doing his damage inside Victor Flores hit for 13 points along the perimeter and Trent Bates helped out with nine rebounds.

"Garritt and Trent both boarded very well and hit some big shots down the stretch," Richins said.

Warden led 38-33 after three quarters and had just enough gas left in the tank to hold on for the win.

"Both teams are battling for playoff spots and there is a lot of ball to be played," Richins said. "We are at the halfway point of our league and we need to take a little momentum into the second half."