The Cedar Rapids Washington girls basketball team dropped an 82-67 decision to No. 4 Iowa City High in the Mississippi Valley Conference opener at Washington Tuesday night.

Both teams were able to take the ball inside and score, but City High put four players in double figures and that balance proved to be the difference.

“City High has a lot of really nice complementary pieces to go with Haley Lorenzen and that makes them a challenge to defend,” Washington Coach Frank Howell said.

“We did a lot of things well, but playing a team like City High early in the season like this helps us to identify what we need to work on to refine our game.”

Abby Herb and Dani Franklin let the Warriors with 18 points apiece. Alternating in the post, they managed to foul out Lorenzen with 2:21 left in the fourth quarter.

In an up-tempo offense, Herb led the way on the fast break and Franklin proved to be powerful in the lane in the halfcourt game.

“We try to push the ball as much as we can and we were able to beat them downcourt a little bit early in the first half,” said Herb. “Their defense in the second half sort of slowed us down.”

“We wanted to take it to Lorenzen on the inside and make her play defense,” said Franklin. “It worked pretty well. We fouled her out.”

Lorenzen led all scorers with 24 points. Kiera Washpun and Mickey Hansche both dropped in 16 points for Iowa City High.

Washington travels to Dubuque Senior on Friday and plays in Moline on Saturday.

CITY HIGH (82): Washpun 5 5-10 16, Hansche 4 7-9 16, Joens 2 5-8 9, Lorenzen 10 4-4 24, Gustafson 5 2-4 12, Sam Blowers 0 1-2 1, Sara Blowers 1 0-0 2, Hightshoe 0 0-0 0, Moore 1 0-0 2. Totals 28 24-39 82.

WASHINGTON (67): Herb 7 4-4 18, Hobbs 2 3-5 8, Bjornsen 1 0-0 3, Kramer 3 0-0 7, Franklin 6 5-7 18, Glenski 3 1-2 9, Malcolm 1 0-0 2, Cook 1 0-0 2, McKenna 0 0-0 0, Ochs 0 0-0 0, Jones 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 13-18 67.

Halftime – City High 45, Washington 37. 3-point goals – City High 2 (Washpun 1, Hansche 1, Washington 6 (Hobbs 1, Bjornsen 1, Kramer 1, Franklin 1, Glenski 2). Fouled out – Lorenzen, Malcolm.