Frank Howell said he forgot to wear his lucky red sweater Tuesday night (Dec. 7). He didn’t need it.

The Washington Warriors remained unbeaten with a convincing 67-52 win over Dubuque Senior at the Warrior gym, but one thing seemed strange. Howell was wearing a blue sweater instead of his trademark red pullover.

“I don’t know. I got up this morning and I put this blue sweater on and it felt good. I usually change, but this time it just felt too good to change,” Howell said. “I kind of forgot I even had it on.”

Howell didn’t need to change anything against Dubuque Senior. The No. 6 Warriors (3-0, 2-0 MVC) stormed to a 14-0 lead and buried the Rams early. The visitors didn’t score until a free throw made it 14-1 with 2:26 left in the opening quarter. Washington led by as many as 20 points in the first half.

Howell said he was most impressed with the rebounding effort by his team.

“I was really pleased, in particular, by the time we got to the half, where we were with the rebounding edge,” he said. “I thought we did a good job of getting post touches and got a good start defensively getting off to that 14-0 start.”

Washington had more offensive rebounds (26) than defensive (24).  The Warriors won the rebounding battle by a whopping 50-20 margin. Tia Dawson had nine rebounds. Abby Herb and Madison Kramer each collected seven. Eight players had three or more rebounds.

Dawson also had 16 points, two steals and five blocks. Jazz Royster added 10 points, five boards, two steals and two blocks. Herb chipped in nine points.

Washington hit only 4-of-28 3-pointers (14 percent) and was 26-for-79 overall (33 percent), but forced 25 turnovers and drilled 11-of-16 free throws (69 percent). The Warriors also had 10 blocks.

Howell seemed unconcerned about shooting percentages.

“You know how outside shooting goes. Sometimes it is there and sometimes it is not. I guess the biggest thing is what types of looks did we have. If we were taking shots where we had good clean looks then I think that is the main thing as long as we didn’t take too many shots where we were challenged (and where) we could have done something else with it. I thought we took some good shots with good clean looks.”

Dubuque Senior was led in scoring by Kristie Sommer with 14 and Elizabeth Reuter with 11.

Every Warrior player got minutes. “I see that as a good thing,” Howell said. “Try to liven up the practice atmosphere a little bit and give people something to look forward to. It is always good when a lot of people get a chance to play.”

Howell said he is hoping for two good practices this week before traveling to Sioux City for a pair of games this weekend against North (ranked seventh in 4A) Friday night and Heelan (ranked ninth in 3A) Saturday.

“With this we really have to focus on the next two days of practice, to really dial it up a little bit and handle the pressure we are going to face a long ways from home. But it is good to get off to a 3-0 start in the conference,” Howell said. “It will be different type of games (out west) this weekend where there probably will be more opportunities to get stuff in transition.”

Washington won the sophomore game with a big comeback, 39-32. The Warriors outscored Dubuque Senior 26-7 in the second half after trailing 25-13 at halftime.

WASHINGTON (67) Ashley Piper 2 0-0 5, Alissa Oney 1 0-0 3, Tia Dawson 6 4-6 16, Jazz Royster 4 2-2 10, Jordon Pilcher 2 0-0 4, Tasha Roundtree 0 0-0 0, Janay Pritchett 2 2-3 7, Kelli Klaus 1 0-0 2, Madison Kramer 1 1-2 3, Abby Herb 3 1-2 9, Layloni Beard 2 1-1 5, Gail Barnum 0 1-2 1, Jordan Carr 0 0-0 0, Lauren Goodlove 0 0-0 0, Brooke Foreman 0 0-0 0,  Chelsey McMahon 3 0-0 7, Kelli Klaus 1 0-0 2, Callie Stone 1 0-0 3. Totals 24 12-16 67.

DUBUQUE SENIOR (52) Liz Reuter 4 0-0 11, Kristie Sommer 4 5-8 14, Nakhyla Powell 1 1-2 3, Taylor Noel 3 0-1 7, Katie Sommer 2 0-0 4, Alisa Williams 0 1-4 1, Nakiah Kimble 0 0-0 0, Andrea Medinger 2 0-3 4, Erin Hunt 4 0-0 8 20 7-18 52.

Halftime – Washington 37, Senior 19. 3-point goals – Washington 3 (Piper, Oney, Pritchett). Senior 5 (Reuter 3, Sommer, Noel). Assists – Dawson 4, Piper 3, Oney 3. Steals – Pritchett 3, Royster 2, Dawson 2.  Blocks – Dawson 4, Royster 2, Piper, Kramer, Herb. Turnovers Washington 26, Senior 25. Fouled out – none.