The Washington Demon boys basketball team had a huge comeback win over Mid-Prairie last night to win the Washington County rivalry.

The Demons came out of the gate flat while the Golden Hawks used sharp passing and their accuracy to land a lot of shots and jump out to a 13-6 lead after one. Mid-Prairie extended that lead at halftime to 15 with a 29-14 score.

In the third quarter, Washington made some more shots and looked to make it somewhat of a game, but Mid-Prairie looked poised to keep their lead intact and come away with a win over the Demons with a 47-35 lead after three.

Enter the fourth quarter. The Golden Hawks got a three-point shot from Stimson and a free throw from Spencer Shalla off of a bizarre technical foul against Demon head coach Bryce Smeins for leaving his chair. The game seemed to be out of reach, but the Demons didn’t give up, switching from zone to an aggressive man-to-man defense and finding their hot hand shooting. Washington hit four three pointers in the quarter and went on an 18-0 run before the Golden Hawks scored again. Washington wrapped up their run at 23-4 to take the 62-58 win.

Washington scored 27 points to Mid-Prairie’s 11 in the fourth quarter. Bryce Smeins talked after the game about the amazing fourth quarter comeback.

“That was definitely a tale of two halves, and we were just awful in the first half and we weren’t mentally into the game at all, we were flat and I’m not sure why, but they’re high school kids so it’s going to happen sometimes, but they showed some courage and toughness in the second half and I’m just really proud with how our kids played in that last 12 or 14 minutes,” Smeins said. “That would have been an easy one to give up on, but they didn’t quit and that’s a testament to those guys.”

Washington was led by Thomas Bump with 21 points on the night, Elijah Wood had 13 and Daryn Seibelius had 11. Mid-Prairie was led by Nick Stimson with 18 points and Nathan Faselt with 13.

Washington is off for a week now because of the Lone Tree game being moved, while Mid-Prairie will host West Branch on Friday.