Royal boys defeat Warden, 62-49

ROYAL CITY — The Royal High School boys basketball squad pulled away from visiting Warden High School Monday evening to win 62-49.

Both sides traded shots in the first quarter with the Royal Knights holding a narrow 16-12 margin after eight minutes. Royal managed to extend its lead to double digits in the second, leading 34-23 at the break.

Royal’s size and pressure on defense continued to cause problems for the Warden Cougars, giving them a 52-36 advantage at the start of the fourth quarter. The Cougars trimmed the deficit to 10 at one point in the second half but couldn’t push any closer as the Knights held on to the buzzer.

Trenton Dorsing led the Knights with 16 points to lead four Royal players in double figures. Luke Bergeson finished with 12, Caleb Christensen had 11 and Derek Bergeson finished with 10. Caleb Christenen finished with nine points in the win.

Royal head coach Ray Valle gave credit to the Cougars for playing a tough game. Valle said he felt like his own team’s intensity could have been higher at times.

“Overall, the effort is there, just gotta clean up some things,” Valle said. “It’s early in the season, but getting better.”

With a compacted season that sees teams sometimes playing four games in a week, Valle said he will have to do a better job of rotating guys in and out.

He said seniors Caleb and Cooper Christensen have been leaders from the beginning.

“They’re gamers and they’ve been around for a long time,” Valle said. “They put the team on their back and I have a lot of confidence in them, it helps the rest of the team as well.”

Kyler Cox led the Cougars with a strong second half, finishing with 16 points. Oziel Martinez finished with 12 for Warden, while Miguel Tamayo finished with nine.

Warden head coach Wes Richins said he was proud of the way his team fought back on Monday night despite being outsized on the floor.

“We were just trying to fight for whatever we can. We were resilient, we cut it to 10,” Richins said. “And my hat’s off to Royal.”

With a lot of new faces on the court this season, Richins said he expects a few mistakes but is happy to see his team improving. He said Miguel Tamayo played well down the stretch and Kyler Cox kept the Cougars in contention all night.

With Warden making the move to 2B next season, Richins said facing teams from all levels of classification has given his players good experience. He added he expects to make some noise in the league next winter.

Next up for the Cougars is a home game against Okanogan High School on Thursday night in Warden. For Royal, a home matchup against Quincy High School is next.