With hopes of receiving an early Christmas present, the Washington basketball teams were left empty handed on Tuesday night when they faced off with Fort Madison and lost a pair of Southeast Conference matchups. 

As heard on KCII, the Demon girls struggled to get anything going offensively against the defending SEC Champs and Fort Madison (6-2, 2-2) pulled away for a 49-18 road victory. Nine first quarter turnovers laid the groundwork for a 14-2 Bloodhound advantage after one. Washington’s half court defense kept them around in the second trailing just 21-10 at the break, but the Hounds sped the game up to outscore the Demons 28-8 in the final 16 minutes. Malarie Ross led all scorers with 23 points and Camille Kruse added 11. Alex Murphy paced the orange and black with six points and Taylor Bartholomew had five. 

The Demon boys made a trip to Fort Madison for a top 10 showdown and they dug themselves an early hole that turned into a 56-46 Bloodhound (7-0, 4-0) victory. The home team utilized their crowd to jump out to a 20-5 lead before No.5 Washington had a chance to punch back. They cut it to 24-16 at intermission and got within five in the third quarter, but could never get over the hump. The undefeated No. 9 Bloodhounds sunk 13 free throws in the final period to hold off the Demons. Kasen Bailey paced Washington with 18 points and Lucas Kroll was also in double figures with 10. 

The Washington girls head into the holiday break with a 1-7 overall mark and 1-3 in the SEC. The boys drop to 6-1 and 3-1 in the league.