Warren’s Jayda Murray, left, scans the floor as Minford’s Lainey Howard defends during Saturday’s game at Warrior Coliseum. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

VINCENT — Down one point going into the fourth quarter Saturday at Warrior Coliseum, Warren head coach Brad Venham didn’t make any specific adjustments. He just asked his team to turn it up a notch.

The Warriors obliged, outscoring visiting Minford 16-6 over the final eight minutes to claim a 48-39 victory.

Two points each from Rylee Arnold, DeLaney Gates and Juliana Huffman fueled a 6-0 spurt to begin the final period, and the Warriors never looked back.

“That was just pure, intense defense,” Venham said.

“At the end of the third, it was just a simple fundamental thing to say, ‘Don’t let our effort be the reason we lose this game,’ and I think we saw that. That 6-0 run — we didn’t do anything different or special. No adjustments. It was just simply our effort was a little bit higher than it had been.”

Warren’s Juliana Huffman attacks the basket as Minford’s Riley Kasee defends during Saturday’s game at Warrior Coliseum. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

Danica Gates’ 3-pointer with 1:52 left in the first put Warren up 6-4, but Minford (10-8) closed the opening period on an 8-2 run, capped by Kerigan Davis’ trey, to take a 12-8 advantage into the second.

Arnold opened the second with a 3-ball and DeLaney Gates followed with a basket to put the Warriors back on top. By halftime, they stretched their advantage to seven, 26-19.

However, a slow start to the second half left an opening for the Falcons to come back.

Minford opened the third on a 7-0 run to tie it.

A basket by Huffman stopped the bleeding and put Warren back in front, and later her three-point play made it 31-29. Minford, though, used a 4-1 run in the final 30 seconds of the third to go up 33-32 with eight minutes to play.

Warren’s Rylee Arnold (15) handles the ball as Minford’s Kerigan Davis defends during Saturday’s game at Warrior Coliseum. (Photo by Jordan Holland)

“We know basketball is a game of runs,” Venham said. “We talked about that prior — we need to be able to withstand whatever they’re going to throw at us when we can’t get it in the bucket. I thought we did that defensively. Again, we held them under 40 again. That’s always our goal.”

Six straight points to start the fourth put Warren up 38-33. Ava Flaig’s bucket got Minford within three, but Jayda Murray and Huffman answered with back-to-back baskets to extend the lead to seven.

Later, layups by Murray and Josie Venham, plus two foul shots by DeLaney Gates, put Warren up double digits with 1:32 remaining.

Huffman led Warren with a game-high 14 points to go along with five rebounds.

“Jules is Jules,” Venham said. “She’s long, so defensively, making people throw over top, and then our second and back row are able to come away with turnovers, and then they just know how to find her in the open floor. You see the several breakaway buckets that she had, but I thought she did a good job, too, in the half-court of putting pressure on the defense by getting into the paint and getting to the free-throw line.”

DeLaney Gates added 11 points and four assists. Arnold tallied seven points while Venham and Danica Gates chipped in six points apiece. Venham also notched a game-high four steals.

“I thought we had several players step up today and play really, really good defensively,” coach Venham said. “That’s what we need to do down the stretch here, because we’re going to get some good teams and we’ve got to be able to withstand what they have offensively, but then we dictate how things go by our defense. I thought today, we did that very, very well at times.”

The Warriors have a tough slate to finish the regular season, starting with a trip to Fort Frye (15-2) on Wednesday. They then play Williamstown (12-2) at home, Caldwell (14-4) on the road, Morgan (9-8) at home and Parkersburg South (9-2) on the road.

Warren has had its ups and downs this season. After a 7-2 start to the year, the Warriors dropped five games in a row to fall back to .500. Since then, they’ve won three straight to improve to 10-7.

Leading scorer Aubrey Pepper has missed eight games due to injury. It’s taken time for the Warriors to jell together without Pepper, but Venham likes what he’s seen of late.

“Obviously, the more time we have on the floor together, the better,” he said. “This week didn’t help that with the weather, but I thought for only having a couple of days practice, they did really well. They’re starting to find each other a little bit more on the offensive end — knowing where they’re going to be, knowing how one person’s gonna screen or how one person’s gonna cut? I’m starting to see that a little bit, and it’s fun to see when it does happen. I’m looking forward to the growth from here until the end of the year.”

Minford was paced by Davis’ 13 points and five boards. Lainey Howard added 10 points, five boards and three assists. Flaig chipped in seven points while Makenna Enz tallied three steals. The Falcons shot 30% (12 for 40) from the floor compared to 51.4% (18 for 35) for the Warriors.

“I thought our half-court offense today was probably the best I’ve seen it in a few games,” Venham said. “Even our wins that we’ve had against John Glenn and Barnesville, we really weren’t clicking and really weren’t able to find each other. Today, I think they’re really starting to feel more comfortable with each other out there. As long as we can start finishing the buckets we should finish, I think we’re going to be a handful for people.”

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@mariettatimes.com.