ZEPHYR COVE, Nev. — The Whittell Warriors Boys’ basketball team reeled off seven straight wins to open the season before the streak was broken on Saturday at the school’s Madness in the Mountain tournament.

The Warriors defeated Wells 64-38 on Thursday, got by Pershing County 47-36 on Friday before falling 64-38 to undefeated Mammoth on Saturday.

“This may surprise a few people but at 7-0 I had some serious concerns,” said Whittell Head Coach Phil Bryant. “We had been winning but really not playing as a team. I had been emphasizing the importance of staying in our offensive and defensive sets throughout a game regardless of the score. We have a tendency to freelance a little too much. Against Mammoth the problem really became evident. The ball was moving on the dribble but not the pass. Then on top of that, whoever had the ball was going solo. I had to take a timeout 2 minutes into the game when down only three because we were totally out of sync and that early timeout was something I rarely do. After 3 more minutes there was still no change and another TO. We were down seven but still playing selfishly. It became evident that the year and a half without basketball created some bad habits. The only fix was some prime bench time and all five starters sat for the remainder of the game. We lost by 21 but I think some valuable lessons may have been learned about ‘team play vs me play.’”

In the wins, James Johnson went for 31 points against Wells.

In the victory over Pershing County, Johnson had 16, Troy Dingman 13 and Andre Smith had 12.

The Warriors (7-1) have the rest of the year to iron out some bad habits. They next play on the road against Smith Valley at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 4.