The WACO girl’s basketball team opened up the season on a five game losing streak, but the good news for the Lady Warriors is how they ended the first half.

WACO grabbed wins against Keota and Lone Tree to close out the first half, and scored the most points they have all season in both games. WACO did miss their Dec. 20 game against Mediapolis, which down the line could help with the momentum into the second half.

On Friday, the Warriors start the second half with a struggling Columbus Junction team who has not won a conference game. WACO moves on to play L-M who has not won a game to date on Jan. 7, and then will play Pekin on Jan. 10.

WACO head coach Shannon Rugg says his team isn’t worrying about the teams they play, but more about getting in shape and carrying the momentum to the second half of the season.

“We’re just worried about getting back to where we were at, and getting that intensity back in practice, and just kind of get back in basketball mode,” Rugg said. “Hopefully [we] can get off to a good start like we ended the first half of the year, and if we can get off to a good start maybe we can get on a roll here. [It’s] just playing basketball the way we ended the year when we were playing good basketball, if we can get back to that right away, and then give ourselves a chance to win some ball games and then find ways to win the fourth quarter.”

The Warriors have given up 348 points to their 273 points, and have a -10.7 point difference per game on the season. In the last two games of the season WACO had a positive 8.5 point difference.

The WACO girls open up the second half of the season against Columbus Junction on Friday.