The Washington Demons began a new season of girls’ basketball by flashing some serious offense in a 62-19 victory at Anamosa last night as heard on KCII. Washington jumped out to a 15-4 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Demons were just getting started. Thanks to five made three-point field goals and excellent free-throw shooting, Washington grabbed a 22-point lead at halftime and would be up by as much as 44 in the second half.

The Demons were sizzling-hot from the field, knocking down nine total three-pointers and hitting 16 of 18 free-throw attempts. Two Washington freshman had phenomenal debuts, as Leighton Messinger led all scorers with 13 points and Adalyn Long added 11. Demons head coach Shannon Rugg told KCII Sports after the game that, as well as things went, it was all according to plan.

“We want to play fast, and I think we played fast tonight,” Rugg said. “I would like to have better execution on offense tonight, but game one, we’re going to take it. Defense-wise, we create some problems, and we can run a lot of kids in on you, and we’re aggressive. We fouled a little too much early in the first quarter. But our girls adjusted to how the officials were calling it and didn’t foul a lot after that. [I’m] super proud of this group of girls. This group has put a lot of time and effort into it and, so far, it’s paid off immensely.”

Washington scored their most points in a game since January of 2017. The Demons will try to build on a stellar debut by going 2-0 when they open conference play at Fairfield next Friday evening.