February Madness? In the words of Dick Vitale, Oskaloosa was “Upset City Baby!” The Washington girls’ basketball team utilized some late game heroics last night to shock the heavily favored Indians 38-37 in a first round class 4A regional.

As heard on KCII, Anna Nacos came out looking like a senior who was not ready for her career to end by scoring the Demons’ first 14 points and helped Washington to a 15-10 first quarter advantage. The Indians (7-15) settled in defensively to start turning the Demons over for a 13-2 quarter and Oskaloosa held a 23-17 lead at the break. Alex Murphy went to work scoring 11 second half points and kept the Demons at striking distance the whole way. Down 37-35 with 10 seconds left Makenna Conrad received a kick out pass on the right arc and the sophomore calmly drained a three that gave the Demons their first lead since the second quarter. A stop at the other end stunned an Indian crowd and sent Demon faithful into a frenzy. 

Nacos tells KCII Sports she knew a special night was bound to happen. “We came out and knew we were going to leave it all on the floor. We had a lot of confidence coming in that we could win. I thought our defense, offense, and pick and rolls were great. I was so happy for Makenna. As soon as she got the ball I was telling her to shoot it and it was so awesome. She is a good shooter and should shoot more.”

Nacos finished with a game-high 18 points and Murphy tallied 13 points and six rebounds. Conrad was one of four from long range, but picked the right time for her only points of the night.

Washington improves to 3-18 and advances to Saturday’s semifinal at #5 Central DeWitt (14-2). Listen to the game at 7 p.m. on AM and FM KCII.