Washington scored the opening basket of its contest with in cross-town rival Kennedy.

But the 2-0 lead was the only lead the Warriors had all night. Kennedy whipped Washington, 46-23, Friday night in a Mississippi Valley Conference boys basketball game at Washington.

The third quarter really told the story of the Warriors (0-15, 0-12) for this game and season as they were held scoreless for the entire eight minutes and nearly another three minutes in the fourth quarter.

“We don’t handle pressure well,” Washington Coach Brad Metzger said. “It makes it hard to get into anything."

The Cougars (12-4, 7-4) play sixth-ranked Linn-Mar, top-ranked Iowa City West and Jefferson all in the next week. They host the Lions Saturday.

“We will need a total team effort both mentally and physically,” Kennedy Coach Bob Fontana said about the upcoming schedule.

With a tough slate ahead, the Cougars rested their starters for the entire fourth quarter. Washington also sat its starting five.

“The rest helps. It also helps to get others some time,” Fontana said. “You never know when you will have to go 9 or 10 deep.”

The benches played an even fourth quarter giving both teams back end of the bench some playing experience.

After Washington scored the game's first bucket, the Cougars went on a 7-0 run to take the lead for good. Poor shooting from Kennedy allowed the Warriors to hang around as they trailed just 10-6 after the first.

“We had some good looks and didn’t hit shots. We also had some bad looks,” Fontana said. “If we are getting good shots we need to keep shooting them and not force bad shots.”

Kennedy picked things up late in the second quarter, using a full court trap to get turnovers and quick points. The Cougars converted easy opportunities to push their lead to double digits going into the half with a 25-13 lead.

The second half was dominated by the Cougar defense as they continued to force turnovers -- 24 in the game.

“I really liked our approach in the second half,” Fontana said. “We followed the game plan both offensively and defensively.”

The Warriors look to get in the win column Saturday at Iowa City Regina.

“We won’t think about this one much,” Metzger said about moving forward. “If there was any positive it was getting the kids on the bench some minutes.”

Washington was led by Peter Holmes and Jason Oney with six and five points, respectively, off the bench.

Kennedy was paced by Josiah Coleman's 12 points.

KENNEDY (46): Darius Fuller 2 1-4 5, Trevor Heitland 1 0-0 2, Cody Bell 1 1-2 4, Elliott Christians 3 1-1 7, Josiah Coleman 4 2-2 12, Benjamin Struss 2 0-0 4, Patrick Martin 0 0-0 0, Alex Hayden 1 0-0 3, Joshua Jahlas 0 1-2 1, Blake Murdock 0 2-2 2, Riley Fergus 1 0-0 2, Johnathon Koelling 0 0-0 0, AJ Carter 1 0-0 2, Taylor Oltmann 1 0-0 2, Andrew Johnson 0 0-0 0. Team 17 8-13 46.

WASHINGTON (23): David Tann 1 0-0 2, Brock Butterfield 0 0-0 0, Cybryan Moa 1 0-0 2, Sean Bredl 1 0-1 2, Paul Nash 0 0-0 0, Peter Holmes 2 1-2 6, Jason Oney 2 1-3 5, Austin Bergstrom 1 0-0 3, David Rosenthal 1 1-1 3, Zachary Williams 0 0-0 0, Logan Schulte 0 0-0 0, Heath Clark 0 0-0 0, Sam Bil 0 0-2 0, Noah Burdt 0 0-0 0, Lucas Pint 0 0-0 0. Team 9 3-9 23.

Halftime – CR Kennedy 25 CR Washington 13. 3 point goals – Kennedy 4 (Bell, Coleman 2, Hayden), Washington 2 (Holmes, Bergstrom). Total Fouls – Kennedy 13, Washington 16.