Warden beats La Conner at state tournament
Warden High School senior Kaya Enriquez (14) and sophomore Lauryn Madsen (0) block out their opponents to rebound the ball during the WIAA 2B girls state tournament against La Conner.
Rebecca Pettingill/Columbia Basin Herald
Warden High School sophomore Lauryn Madsen (0) goes in for a layup during the state matchup against La Conner on March 3 at the Spokane Arena.
Warden High School senior Kiana Rios (32) shoots for a three-pointer at the WIAA 2B girls state tournament against La Conner.
Warden High School senior Kiana Rios (32) drives the ball downcourt in her team’s game against La Conner on March 3 at the Spokane Arena. Warden took the game 61-48.
SPOKANE - The Warden High School girls basketball team took a victory over La Conner Thursday during the State 2B basketball tournament, 61-48.
“The girls just dug in and it was a huge team win. And we had a good game plan and more importantly, the girls executed it,” Warden head coach Josh Madsen said.
The Warden Lady Cougars had beaten Wahkiakum 55-40 on day one of the tournament, putting them into day two against La Conner.
The game kicked off with La Conner gaining possession of the ball from the tip off. However, Warden’s Lauryn Madsen made the first basket of the game with 7 minutes left in the quarter. By halfway through the quarter, Warden was able to get a quick lead of 10-3. The quarter came to a close with the Lady Cougars ahead by seven, 17-10.
Starters for the Lady Cougars were Lauryn Madsen, Quinn Erdmann, Kiana Rios, Jaryn Madsen and Rylee McKay.
Quarter two, La Conner managed to close their lead, just trailing at 21 to Warden’s 22 at the end of the quarter.
Going into the second half of the game, Warden continued to hold La Conner back and widened the gap from one point ahead to four. The end of quarter three saw Warden at 36 to La Conner’s 32.
Fourth quarter, the Lady Cougars pushed on. A four point gap did not seem to be enough for Warden and they used the fourth quarter to not only win the game, but widen their lead to 13 points by the end of the game. A good amount of the 13 points were free throws made by Warden due to fouls by La Conner in the final minute of the game. Warden won the game 61-48.
Madsen was really happy with this win for the fact that La Conner was ranked the No. 1 team going into the tournament, with Warden being ranked just behind them at No. 2.
If rankings could determine how tough a team would be, Warden would have just won their toughest game of the tournament.
Warden goes on to play March 4, the third day of the state tournament, at 3:45 p.m. against No. 4 Okanogan. Warden has lost only one game this entire season. The loss was a regional matchup against No. 7 Liberty (Spangle), 60-62 on Feb. 25.
However, Warden isn’t done yet.
“We got more work to do,'' Madsen said.
Box score:
Warden - 17 5 13 25 - 61
La Conner - 10 11 11 16 - 48
