The Washington Demon boys’ basketball team will be having a holly, jolly Christmas after they went into the holiday break on a high note, pulling away in the second half last night to defeat Fort Madison 57-37. Washington played strong defense early and often, but the Demons only led by three at the end of the first quarter and were up 22-20 at halftime. Washington head coach Collin Stark told KCII Sports that it was in the third period that his guys finally pulled away.

“In the first half, I thought sometimes we’ve kind of forced some of those in the paint,” Stark says. “Now, all of a sudden, we’re going against two guys going straight up and just a dump-down [pass] leads to a layup. And I thought in that second half we did a great job of seeing that extra pass. [It was a] team effort defensively. Every single game, it always seems like that’s when we start making our run, when we start locking down defensively, and then the offense fuels off that.”

Senior forward Ajay Six poured in 10 of his game-high 17 points in the second half, while Aden Six had all 12 of his points after the break and Avery Six scored 11. Washington improves to 3-1 in the Southeast Conference with the victory and is 4-4 overall. The Demons are off until they host Fairfield on January 6th.