The Demon boys basketball team had a tall order last night against Ft. Madison, and the Demons made a game of it.

Washington lost in the end 65-52, but the Demons stayed right with the Bloodhounds for most of the game.

In the first quarter, it looked as though the size and speed of Ft. Madison was going to run away with the game, leading 20-13 after the first, and 34-25 at halftime, but the Demons have come back from worse.

In the third quarter, Washington started to pour it on a little more, and found themselves within striking distance of the lead, down 45-39. In the fourth quarter, Washington moved their feet and got to the line, while holding Ft. Madison defensively. Halfway through the fourth the Demons got the lead down to four, and that was a close as they would get. The Bloodhounds started knocking down threes, and fouls caught up to the Demons, sending Ft. Madison to salt the game at the line.

Washington was led by Thomas Bump with a game high 24 points, and Blake Weidman came in with 12 of his own.

Demon head coach Bryce Smeins said it was a pretty good game despite not practicing since Fairfield on Friday.

“They’re 12-1, and rated in the top 10, and I was obviously concerned, because we didn’t practice yesterday, and we took the weekend off, assuming we would practice on Monday, so we went three days without practice and didn’t really have any prep time. I thought all-in-all the kid gave a really good effort tonight,” Smeins said. “I didn’t think we shot it very well; we missed some layups early in the game, and had it down to 47-43 late, had a couple of looks and didn’t score, so overall I am pretty pleased with our effort, I hate to lost obviously, but I thought our guys played hard against a pretty good team.”

Washington honored their four seniors as well, including: Brett Wright, Mason Quigley, Walker Breard, and Elijah Wood.

The Demons fall to 4-8 on the season, and play an equally tough Keokuk team on Friday.