The first week represented in the Associated Press poll for class 3A, the No. 5 ranked Washington boys’ basketball team lived up to the hype on Friday by putting the hammer down on their Southeast Conference rival Mount Pleasant 70-41. 

As heard on KCII, the home crowd that included the presence of Santa Clause brought the energy early and so did the Demons by racing out a 25-8 first quarter advantage. Foul trouble started to mount for Washington in the second quarter where the second unit was able to hold serve for a 37-24 halftime lead. The man-to-man pressure cranked back up in the third and Washington outscored the Panthers (2-4, 1-2) by a 33-17 tally in the final two quarters. Kasen Bailey led all scorers with 17 points, Lance Sobaski added 13, and Ethan Patterson was also in double figures with 10. Lucas Kroll brought in six rebounds and managed three steals. 

Head Coach Collin Stark was pleased with his team leaving no doubt in the second half. “It helped that they got in to foul trouble too and in the second half they were playing some guys that weren’t used to being in. We saw that as an opportunity to really put it away and that’s exactly what we did. It’s good to see that we came ready to play another conference game and to win by 29 against a team like Mount Pleasant is something you have to be excited about.” The Demons move to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the SEC. 

The Washington girls did not have as good of luck on the road falling 61-30. Down 9-2 after one, the orange and black was outscored 42-19 in the second and third quarters that allowed the Panthers (2-6, 1-2) to pull away. They are now 1-5 and 1-2 in the league.

Both Demon teams close out the first half of the season Tuesday against Fort Madison.