Several fresh faces are set to hit the court tonight in the season debut for the Washington Demon boys basketball team (0-0 overall). Five of the Demons’ top seven scorers from last season have left the program, four due to graduation and another who decided not to come out for this year’s team.

The one face people will recognize is last year’s leading scorer, Derek Anding. Anding’s 295 points scored was 56 points more than any other Demon player a season ago, ranking fifth in the Southeast Conference last year in points scored. The senior shooting guard spent several hours in the gym in the offseason, and spent a portion of his summer competing in the Primetime Basketball League in North Liberty. The squad’s next highest returning scorer is senior Jack Giardino, who scored 59 points in 19 appearances last season.

The team’s four graduating seniors will be missed in several facets of the game, especially when it comes to rebounding. Washington graduates Thomas Bump, Daryn Sebelius, Gage Redlinger, and Blake Weidman accounted for 378 of Washington’s 531 total rebound last season or 71 percent.

The Demons open the regular season facing one of the best returning basketball players in the Midwest Region. Muscatine sophomore Joe Wieskamp averaged 18.6 points per game as a freshman for the Muscatine Muskies last season. Wieskamp is a 2018 nationally ranked basketball recruit who has verbally committed to play college basketball at the University of Iowa. He scored 15 points and grabbed down four rebounds in a 76-51 victory over Washington last season, his second varsity basketball game of his career.

A new season of boys’ basketball tips off tonight for the Washington Demons. KCII Sports will have live play-by-play coverage from Washington High School beginning with the Washington Hy-Vee Pregame Show at 7 p.m. on FM 106.1 and KCIIRadio.com.