Warden girls overcome turnovers, fouls to remain unbeaten
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Warden freshman Kiana Rios (right) puts up a shot against Mabton.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Warden senior Ashlyn Yamane drives to the basket against Mabton.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Mabton's Kassandra Hernandez (24) tiptoes the baseline while being guarded by Warden's Jaryn Madsen.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Mabton's Mercedes Bacerra (21) drives into the lane against two Warden defenders.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Warden's Kiana Rios handles the ball up court against Mabton.
WARDEN — Warden girls basketball is still a “work in progress,” according to first-year head coach Josh Madsen.
Tuesday night against Mabton, the team showcased some of the progress as well as the work that still needs to be done. The 4-0 Cougars overcame some head-scratching turnovers and spotty shooting from the perimeter to beat Mabton 57-45.
“We’ve got some seniors and we’ve got some young players and they’re figuring out ... the seniors are figuring out how I want them to play. The freshmen are figuring out how to play high school basketball — fans, three officials,” Madsen said. “Lots of room for improvement. We’ll take the wins, but we’ve got plenty to work on and I hope that we’re even a week from now — two, three weeks from now — we’re a different team every time we step on the court.
“Hopefully we’re getting better all the time.”
Warden’s scoring output was almost identical between the roster’s seniors and the trio of talented freshmen new to the program. Bailey Whitney scored a team-high 14 points as the upperclassmen contributed 29 of the 57 total. Warden’s freshmen contributors — Jaryn Madsen, Kiana Rios and Rylee McKay — added 28, with McKay’s 12 points leading the youth.
Mabton, only three seasons removed from taking third in state, was on the wrong side of the talent disparity. However, the game remained close for most of the duration due to frantic pressure defense, double teams and forced — some unforced — errors by the Cougars’ offense.
“Just sloppy, just careless with the ball, bad decisions,” Josh Madsen said.
Mabton kept the game close, down 29-24 at halftime, due in large part to the outside shooting of junior Kassandra Hernandez. Hernandez had 16 first-half points, but only scored one more basket in the second half.
Warden opened the second half on a 16-2 run and led by as much as 19 points before the Vikings began to chip away. Mabton closed the third quarter on a 9-2 run to avoid a blowout scenario.
Rios fouled out with 6:26 to play in the game, however, the Vikings were unable to generate enough offense to threaten the Cougars’ lead.
“We haven’t put together a whole game yet,” Josh Madsen said. “We’ve shown flashes of really, really good basketball — where I hope that we can be. Now we’ve just gotta have more consistency, longer stretches where we can just really exert our will.”
Box score
W 12 17 18 10 — 57
M 11 13 11 10 — 45
Warden: Bailey Whitney 14, Rylee McKay 12, Kiana Rios 10, Aubree Skone 7, Jaryn Madsen 6, Ashlyn Yamane 4, Melanie Cazares 2, Ellie Conahan 2