It was a good Friday night to be a Demon with both Washington basketball teams picking up wins in a Southeast Conference sweeping of Burlington.
As heard on KCII, the Washington girls nabbed their first win in front of a home crowd with a 49-30 triumph. The Demons came out aggressive offensively and took an early lead with the score 11-7 after one. Despite controlling the second quarter, the Demons could never secure a double digit lead due to Alexis Standard dropping 10 of her game high 15 points in the first half. The score was 26-17 at the break. The third quarter is when Washington made their move with a 17-4 frame that paved the way to a 19-point victory over Burlington (0-3). It was a balanced night offensively with no Demon in double figures, but six had at least five points. Makenna Conrad and Kaylin Long each had nine. Lauren Hinrichsen chipped in with eight while Elyse Hunt and Alex Murphy had seven. Maci Williams was a rebounding machine and finished the evening with five points. Head Coach Shannon Rugg tells KCII Sports it was an all around effort from his squad. “We ran some things better tonight and executed better on the offensive end by taking care of the ball. We are improving defensively and starting to understand what we are looking for. We had two really good practices this week and it showed tonight. ”
The Demon boys were in another conference tussle with the score tied at 37 all at half. It looked like the Demons would take over by building a 13 point advantage in the third only to have the Grayhounds (2-3) race back to cut the deficit to three. Washington made enough plays down the stretch to prevail on the road 75-69. Burlington stayed close in large part by a 30 point effort from Amarion Davis and hitting 25 of 27 from the free throw line compared to Washington’s 15 out of 29. Four Demons were in double figures with Ethan Patterson connecting on five triples and collecting 23 points. Lance Sobaski managed a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Kasen Bailey tallied 17 points and Travis Leyden added 10.
The Washington girls improve to 1-4 overall and 1-1 in the SEC. The boys move to 4-0 and 2-0 in conference.