It was a heart wrenching end to the season for the No. 3 Washington boys’ basketball team on Friday when they were clipped by Solon 48-44 in overtime in a class 3A substate semifinal.
As heard on KCII, everything was going to plan in the first half with the home Demons building an 11-7 advantage after one and 25-15 at the break. The slow pace favored the Spartans in the second half and locking down defensively allowed them to crawl their way back. It was a 32-27 ballgame after three and they eventually tied it up in the closing minutes. Washington held the ball for the final 90 seconds of regulation, but couldn’t get a clean shot off and free basketball ensued deadlocked at 39-39. Already shorthanded for overtime with Lucas Kroll and Travis Leyden fouling out, the Demons got behind the eight ball early with a three in the first possession for Solon. That gave them a lead they never relinquished again with Washington forcing to play catch up when points were hard to come by against a suffocating Solon defense. The deficit was as high as seven before a late Kasen Bailey three, but too little, too late. Bailey was the lone Demon in double figures with 17 points and Solon was led by Jake Benzing with 13.
Head Coach Collin Stark tells KCII Sports about how special this senior class was. “It may take weeks or months, but I think these guys will understand and appreciate what they accomplished throughout their whole career. Their freshman year is really when we started to see success and this group was big in moving the program in the right direction. It was all them. They are the ones that bought in and put in so much time. It is going to be so tough to replace the leadership that these guys brought.”
Solon improves to 15-9 and advances to Monday’s substate final against Central DeWitt. Washington closes their campaign 19-4 and winners of their third straight Southeast Conference crown. They say goodbye to a loaded senior class of eight that includes Bailey, Leyden, Kroll, Lance Sobaski, Grant Sobaski, Zane Wefenstette, John Prochaska, and Kole Williams.