It was a pair of upsets at Washington High School on Monday with the Demon girls’ basketball team picking up their second win of the season by defeating Ottumwa and the boys suffering their second setback of the campaign.
As heard on KCII, the Washington girls struggled to get much going offensively in the first half, but was carried by their zone defense and only trailed 15-10 at the break. Things started to pick up for the Demons in the third by attacking the rim and going to the line. With the game tied late in the quarter, Iris Peterson got a bucket and the foul to give the orange and black a lead they never relinquished. Free throws down the stretch salted the game away for a 38-25 Demon victory in front of a packed home crowd. Makenna Conrad got all of her 11 points from the charity stripe and Alex Murphy added six points. Head Coach Shannon Rugg believes his team is gaining momentum. “We played a good game on Friday and I think that gave us confidence tonight against a six win class 5A team. We didn’t get out to the start we wanted to offensively, but our defense kept us around until we figured it out. I couldn’t be happier for these girls. They have stuck together and continue to work hard every single day. Hopefully this we get us moving in the right direction.” The Demons improve to 2-13 on the season.
The boys’ game was a physical bout with Ottumwa (5-8) pulling the stunner on the road by knocking off the No. 4 Demons 58-50 in overtime. The Bulldogs led for much of the night by getting a 12-8 leg up after one, 25-16 at the break, and 31-29 advantage heading into the fourth. It took some late heroics for Washington just to force overtime by being down six with less than two minutes remaining. Ethan Patterson buried a triple from the top of the key to cut it to three and Washington was gifted a couple opportunities with missed free throws from Ottumwa. Down two with 10 seconds left, Aden Six picked the right time for his only points of the night with a runner from the baseline that dropped through and sent the game to the extra period all notched up at 46-46. Ottumwa didn’t let the late flurry get to them, as they controlled the extra four minutes by a 12-4 count to pull off the non-conference win. Allen Cook was a Demon killer off the bench finishing with six triples and 20 points. Washington was led by a 15 point outing from Lucas Kroll while Travis Leyden and Kasen Bailey added nine a piece. They fall to 13-2. It was senior night with the girls having one player recognized in Elyse Hunt and the boys had eight including Leyden, Kroll, Bailey, Lance Sobaski, Grant Sobaski, Zane Wefenstette, John Prochaska, and Kole Williams.
Next up for Washington is Southeast Conference foe Burlington on Friday.