The theme of nail biting playoff games this week in Southeast Iowa continued on Thursday with the Washington boys’ basketball team suffering a crushing 49-48 season ending loss to Grinnell in a class 3A substate semifinal.
As heard on KCII, the Demons were shorthanded once again playing without Lance Sobaski, but the Orange and Black threw the first punch with Trashaun Willis racking up 10 first quarter points and the home squad leading 15-11 after one. The Tigers’ 6’9’’ post player Owen Coffman started to take over recording 14 first half points and Grinnell flipped the script for a 31-25 halftime advantage. Coffman scored the game’s first six points of the second half to push the lead to a dozen when the Kasen Bailey led Demons started to chip away. The junior tallied 11 points after intermission and Washington slowly clawed their way back to a one possession deficit in the final minute. The Demon crowd erupted after Travis Leyden buried a triple from the left arc to give Washington a 48-47 lead with 20 seconds left. The Tigers set up a play for the win and while their three attempt was left short, Coffman was fouled going for the rebound and was sent to the line. Having struggled all night at the charity stripe, the senior calmly sunk both one-and-one free throws to end the Demon season. Coffman finished with a game-high 25 points and Cole McGriff had five triples to record 16. Bailey led Washington with 17 points and Willis added 15.
Demon Head Coach Collin Stark could not have been more proud of how his team continued to fight. “It’s hard to come up with the words. Our guys just battled. Everyone on the floor, everyone on the bench, and even the crowd willed these guys to continue. We talked about breaking the game into two-minute spurts and I think we won most of those in the fourth quarter. Every single kid that was out there gave all they had and we were so close.”
Grinnell moves to 10-13 and advances to Monday’s substate final against Pella. The Demons close the season 15-6, their most wins since the 2009-10 campaign. They say goodbye to five seniors in Willis, Zac Stout, Noah Suchan, Thomas Bias, and Wilx Witthoft.