From the bench Tuesday, Washington Coach Frank Howell yelled out a dizzying array of numbers and play calls to his girls all night.

With two minutes to go and his Warriors ahead of Linn-Mar 47-42, he screamed, “Elvis. Elvis.”

“It means,” he explained later, “that if you shoot it, you’re dead. Elvis is the most famous dead guy I know.”

His teenage players might not grasp the significance of Elvis, he freely admitted, “But they know what ‘Elvis’ means.”

And they minded their coach, too.

After leading much of the way and then clawing back from a two-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter, Washington ran its four-corners ball-control to perfection and closed out a 53-42 win from the free throw line.

The Class 4A seventh-ranked Warriors (8-3, 7-3 MVC) held the Lions (6-8, 3-7) to just two baskets in the final period, and one of them was a fluke.

Barely into the last quarter, Linn-Mar’s Courtney Major lofted a jumper that bounded high off the back of the rim, bounced from the top of the bank-board and dropped straight down through the net.  The unintentional trick shot gave the Lions a 40-36 lead.

But from then on, it was the Warriors all the way. Washington regained the lead with five minutes left on 3-pointer by junior Madison Kramer. Immediately following a rare turnover by spunky Linn-Mar sparkplug point guard Mykaela Brandt, Warrior sophomore Danielle Franklin hit another trey.

“That was a real turning point,” said Howell. “Not only did they put points on the board, but it energized us on the other end of the court.

“I thought from there out we did a very good job defending down the stretch.”

Linn-Mar’s only two points in the final 7:30 of the game came on a nifty spinning drive by the tough-as-nails 5-foot-6 junior Brandt.

“We gave them too many second, third and even fourth opportunities in the fourth quarter,” said Lions Coach Michael Brandt, Mykaela’s father.  “And then there was one point where we turned the ball over three times in a row.

“But what it came down to was that in the end, they hit their shots and we didn’t.”

In losing their seventh straight game and again without starters Shanice Cheatham and Rachel Thrune, the Lions got off to a slow start and seemed befuddled by Washington’s full-court press.

“But once we relaxed,” said Coach Brandt, “I thought we limited our mistakes and really went after them.”

Early in the third quarter, junior Sara Strauel hit three straight baskets to put the Lions up 33-28.  But two straight Washington steals led to easy lay-ups by leading scorer Jazz Royster.  A pair of free throws by Strauel and her tip-in at the buzzer gave Linn-Mar a 38-36 lead going into the final stanza.

Then the bottom fell out.

Royster, who led all scorers with 16 points and benefitted from a couple of nice feeds by fellow senior Tasha Roundtree, also snagged the final rebound of the night after Linn-Mar fired up a barrage of desperation 3-pointers.

“In the games we’ve lost this year,” Howell said. “We’ve doe a poor job of getting to the free throw line and a poor job of keeping the other team off the free throw line.  Tonight, we did a better job of taking it to the basket. And we emphasized playing defense with our feet more instead of our hands.”

The Warriors finished the night 22 of 27 from the line, while the Lions were just seven of 15.

LINN-MAR (42): Hannah Yearling 2 0-0 4, Mykaela Brandt 4 4-8 12, Sara Strauel 6 3-6 15, Courtney Major 2 0-1 5, Alexis Libenguth 0 0-0 0, Jenna Harms 3 0-0 6, Kristen Eiles 0 0-0 0, Carly Ryder 0 0-0 0, Lannie Nietert 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 7-15 42.

WASHINGTON (53): Abby Herb 2 1-3 5, Madison Kramer 2 1-2 6, Jazz Royster 3 10-10 16, Tasha Roundtree 3 5-6 12, Danielle Franklin 3 3-4 10, Brooke Foreman 1 2-2 4, Colby Bjornsen 0 0-0 0, Aleena Hobbs 0 0-0 0, Kelli Klaus 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 22-27 53.

Halftime – Wasington 25, Linn-Mar 25. 3-point goals – Linn-Mar 1 (Major), Washington 3 (Kramer, Roundtree, Franklin). Total fouls – Linn-Mar 19, Washington 12. Fouled out – none.