The Washington Demon boys basketball team once again made everyone in the crowd hold their breath, as they came back from being 10 down to beat Lone Tree 52-48.

Lone Tree came out of the gate in a physical game, and surgically picked apart the Demon’s 2-3 zone, scoring on anything they threw to the basket to lead 17-13 after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, it looked as though Lone Tree had a pretty good strangle hold on the game, driving to the basket, picking up the rare foul call of the night, and hitting their free throws when needed (6-7 in the first half). The Lions led at the half 32-22.

In the second half the attitude changed, the Demons went from a 2-3 zone to a man-to-man defense, and Lone Tree struggled to score, only scoring nine in the third quarter to Washington’s 18 to make the game just a one point lead going into the third.

Lone Tree head coach Tom Squires talked about the play against the zone defense, and the turning of tides in the second half.

“It was definitely a tale of two halves, and the funny thing our basketball team this year, is that we have really struggled to play against zone, and I thought that we did a really good job of moving the ball. I thought we were patient, we did a good job of getting the ball to Matt Wieland, and he did a good job of finishing, and then all of a sudden in the fourth quarter Washington came out and played us in man, and we have not struggled against man-to-man defense very much this year, and we came out and it really slowed us down and threw our tempo off,” Squires said.

Lone Tree did all they could to preserve their lead, but they only scored seven points, and all of them were from Trent Gosnell. Washington got a three pointer from Blake Weidman in the middle of the quarter for his first points of the night, and the shot that put the Demons in the lead until the end of the game, winning 52-48.

This is the second game this season that the Demons have comeback from being down 10 or more points at halftime. The first time was against Mid-Prairie when they trailed by 17 at the half.

Demon head coach Bryce Smeins talked after the game about the great come back, but the need to play all 32 minutes.

“The first half I just didn’t think we played very well, and you have to give Lone Tree a lot of credit, I thought they played extremely well, shot it well, and we didn’t get it done early and they did, but thank gosh you get to play two halves,” Smeins said. “I thought we were much better in the second half. The game was physical, they let them play a little bit, but our guys didn’t quit. They’ve been in that spot quite a bit this year, and they rallied back, but we still have to get to where we are playing all 32 minutes instead of 16 or 18.”

Washington was led by Thomas Bump with 15, followed by Gage Redlinger and Daryn Seibelius both with nine. Lone Tree got 16 from Trent Gosnell, and 13 from Jovonte Squires.

The Demons will go on to play tonight against Keokuk, while Lone Tree will travel to Louisa Muscatine.