Battling a feisty but winless Haven team on Friday night in Marion, the Warriors got a gift of 11 third-quarter points from Williams to power them to 60-51 victory Friday at Marion.

Williams's heroics transformed a seven-point deficit into a six-point lead.

"She definitely changed the tempo of the game for us," Enos said. "Sarah shot extremely well from the field and just had a great game overall."

From the beginning, the Warrior defense was stout, limiting the Wildcats to three field goals in the first eight minutes.

But Haven, on the strength of 9-of-10 free-throw shooting, held a 16-14 lead at the first break.

"I was disappointed with our number of fouls but the fact we held them to that number of field goals was a positive," Enos said.

The Warrior defense was equally adept in the second quarter, limiting Haven to just three more field goals. But 7-for-9 shooting from the stripe staked Haven to a 29-24 halftime lead.

"At halftime, I looked at the girls and just had to laugh," Enos said. "I told them it's the same old story-fouls and turnovers."

Adding to the Warrior woes was the fact that Toni Gordon and Leann Thomas were both saddled with three fouls.

"That's not handy, I'll say that," Enos said. "But we do have some flexibility in that area and (Haven) really didn't have any height advantage."

After Haven scored on its initial possession of the third quarter, Williams went to work.

A freethrow, a layup and two 3-point baskets sandwiched around another 3-pointer from Allie Maddox brought Marion to within a point, 37-36.

Williams added another short jumper to put Marion on top, 38-37, a lead they didn't relinquish the rest of the night.

Williams finished as the game's high scorer with 17 points while leading Marion with 10 rebounds.

Haven did catch the Warriors at 45, and, on another occasion, crawled to within three points at 54-51 with 1:12 left. But strong play down the stretch secured the MHS victory.

Enos said he was proud of how his girls maintained their composure during the final hectic moments.

"We called timeout and told the girls we didn't need to shoot, but just do a good job of taking care of the basketball," Enos said. "The girls did a good job and we got some easy buckets at the end.

"We had some great passing in the last minute and some great composure near the end of the game."

Backing Williams offensively was Maddox, who added 16 points, and Gordon, who scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds.

For the game, Marion hit 23 of 64 shots (36 percent) including six of 19 (31.5 percent) from beyond the 3-point line.

Marion connected on eight of 14 free throws (57 percent) compared to 21 of 27 (78 percent) for the Wildcats while out rebounding Haven, 37-24.

With the win, Marion heads into the holiday break with a 4-2 record. The next game is scheduled for Jan. 7 at Hoisington.

"This was just a great win," Enos said. "I think the timing of this win is just about perfect.

"We know we could have a little better record, but we'll work on some of our press problems and we'll be ready for Hoisington when the time comes.

"I'm very happy and it was a great win for the girls. I told them thanks for the great Christmas present."

Halstead-The Warriors lost last Tuesday at Halstead, 59-57.

Coach Daryl Enos said the game was Marion's to win.

"We should have won it because we led by as many as seven in the second half," Enos said. "But we just couldn't hold on to it."

Early, both teams executed well on offense and the first quarter ended with Halstead leading, 20-17.

But the second quarter belonged to the Warriors. A 17-8 advantage propelled them into a 33-28 lead at halftime.

"We looked pretty good in the first half," Enos said. "I thought we ran our offense well, especially in the second quarter."

Marion stretched its advantage to seven early in the third quarter, but finished the period still leading by five, 45-40.

The Warriors battled to get many calls from the officials in the final quarter, according to Enos.

"Late in the game there was a call at mid-court that went against us where we had the ball and get landed on-and we got the foul called," Enos said. "They shot a one-and-one out of it.

"Later, Toni (Gordon) hit a 3-point shot, but they wiped it our because they said she traveled," he said. "I just don't see how they got that one."

Despite of that, the Warriors trailed by only two points with 19 seconds left and had possession of the ball.

"I told the girls to call a timeout with about six seconds to play if we didn't have a shot by then," Enos said. "But I finally called it with just two seconds to play.

"We drew up a play that we thought would be effective, but we really didn't even get a shot off. We had the right players in the right spot, but we didn't utilize the play very well."

The loss dropped Marion to 3-2 for the season.

Enos said his team is shooting the ball well enough to win, but turnovers have proven costly.

"We're shooting 35 percent from the 3-point line for the year and that's wonderful," he said. "We'll take that any night."

Leading the way for Marion was Leann Thomas, who scored 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting, including one of two attempts from behind the 3-point arc.

"Leann is a player," Enos said. "But we have three players averaging in double figures. We just need to get some other girls scoring a little bit more."

Allie Maddox and Toni Gordon are the other two players averaging double figures for the season. In this game, Gordon contributed 11 points and six rebounds before fouling out.

The Warriors hit 23 of 61 shots from the field (38 percent), including three of eight from the 3-point line. Marion converted eight of 14 free throws (57 percent), compared to seven of 16 (43 percent) for the Dragons.

"We had a few key turnovers in some spots where we really needed to control the ball," Enos said. "We didn't rebound as well as we need to either. But turnovers down the stretch just seem to be our Achilles heel this year."