Don’t count out the Woodland Warriors.

Trailing St. Bede Academy by as many as 16 points in the first half and by double digits the entirety of the second quarter, the Warriors grabbed a three-point lead just before the conclusion of the third quarter and didn’t let it go on their way to a 59-54 Tri-County Conference win at the Warrior Dome.

The win keeps the Warriors (10-6, 4-0) undefeated in the conference.

After the Bruins led 27-15 at halftime, a barrage of 3-pointers turned the game in the Warriors’ favor in the third quarter. Nolan Price hit three of them, including a game-tying 3 with 2 minutes, 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter and the go-ahead 3 just before the end of the period. Grant Wissen also converted once from beyond the arc.

“This is the third time we’ve come back this season,” said Woodland coach Connor Kaminke. “This is the most relentless group of kids I’ve had the pleasure to coach, and you know it’s just the mindset of ‘weather the storm, bend don’t break,’ and they could’ve very easily went into that locker room and given in.”

Price, who finished with 21 points, said the Warriors knew they were getting good shots in the first half, but they weren’t falling.

“That’s what our talk was at halftime,” Price said. “Jaron (Follmer) is our best scorer at the rim, no doubt. Everybody knows it. He probably missed five layups in the first. We told him at the half, he’s going to make five in a row.”

In the fourth quarter, the Warriors built a 48-42 lead of their own as the momentum shifted. The Bruins (9-7, 2-2) drew within one possession following a 3-pointer from Graham Ross and again after an offensive putback from Gino Ferrari before the two-minute mark.

The Warriors, however, converted 7-of-12 free throws down the stretch. Carson Riva hit a 3-pointer for St. Bede with 16 seconds remaining to draw within 57-54 and give the Bruins one last chance, but a pair of Warriors free throws on each end of a Bruins turnover ended the game.

“St. Bede really started the game off with a really physical man-to-man defense,” Kaminke said. “That popped us in the mouth early. I don’t think we were really ready for that. Credit them.

“A lot of good looks didn’t go down, maybe we got a little lackadaisical on defense, gave up some offensive rebounds that led to second chances, but again, we didn’t allow that to let us be negative, give up or give in.”

Right after a pair of Alec Tomsha 3-pointers gave St. Bede its largest lead of the night, 27-11, with more than five minutes to go in the second quarter, the Bruins didn’t record another basket the remainder of the first half.

St. Bede Coach Brian Hanson believed that stretch turned the game around.

“We got off to a great start, we came out on the road like you’d want to against a really good team,” Hanson said. “But we hit a wall late in the second quarter where we didn’t score. Next thing you know, we’re up 12 at the half instead of maybe 20 possibly. We didn’t capitalize at that point.”

Tomsha had the hot hand early for the Bruins, hitting four 3-pointers, all in the first half. He finished with 12 points, and Geno Dinges led all St. Bede scorers with 13 points. Ferrari tallied nine points and Riva eight.

“They made shots,” Hanson said of Woodland. “We went where we didn’t get really good looks at the basket for awhile, but early in the game we made shots, and (the Warriors) were having trouble figuring that out. The game is nice when it starts going in.”

To go along with Price’s 21 points, Nate Berry turned in 17 points and Wissen 12.

Kaminke said Woodland drew up a play for Price after halftime that led to his 3-pointer.

“I saw the look in his eyes all game, and I wanted to get a play for him right out of the half,” Kaminke said. “He made that first 3-pointer, and that was all the momentum we needed. He was just completely laser-locked in.”

With the win, the Warriors are excited to be leading the Tri-County Conference at this point in the season, but Kaminke believes that means Woodland is going to see conference opponents’ best effort moving forward.

“That’s a really good team,” Kaminke said of St. Bede. “They came in here and beat us on Night 1. We knew this was a revenge game. We know we’re sitting at the top of the Tri-County now, so everyone is coming for us. Nothing is going to be easy, but we wouldn’t want that. We want those challenges every night.”

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Woodland’s Nolan Price works to get this shot past the block attempt by St Bede’s Graham Ross in the 2nd quarter Friday at Woodland. (Tom Sistak For Shaw Media)