The Washington Demons came out of the gates strong in 2023 by picking up a pair of conference basketball wins Friday night against Fairfield. The Washington girls were up single digits most of the first half, but the Demons dominated the second half and outscored the Trojans 34-13 to pull away and win 62-33. Washington head coach Shannon Rugg told KCII Sports he saw a complete team effort down the stretch, especially on defense.

“Our girls just kept playing hard,” Rugg said, “and our press just kept swarming them, and we played so many kids that it looked like, in the middle of the third quarter, [Fairfield] was just gassed. That fourth quarter, they scored one point [and] we had a starter play maybe three minutes. The rest was all bench kids. Hats off to them.”

Senior Alex Murphy led the Demons in scoring with 15 points, while classmate Makenna Conrad scored a season-high 11 points to help Washington improve to 3-2 in the Southeast Conference and 6-3 overall. In the boys’ game, Washington’s largest lead of the night nearly disappeared, as Fairfield closed the second quarter on an 8-0 run to cut the Demons’ lead to 26-20. The Trojans kept hanging around until senior Ethan Patterson hit a three-pointer late in the third period and was fouled. The four-point play put Washington up 44-32, a lead they would never relinquish in a 62-49 victory. Demons head coach Collin Stark said, even with Fairfield senior Max Weaton putting up a game-high 30 points, his team couldn’t have played much better on defense.

“With Max, you could tell he really came to play tonight,” Stark said, “and even though he was getting to the free-throw line and he scored well over 20 points, it was tough. We made it tough on him, and that’s all you can ask with a player of that caliber.”

Along with stingy defense, Washington had four players in double-figure scoring, led by senior Ajay Six’s 15 points. Patterson poured in 14 points, while Aden Six put 13 and sophomore Logan McDole had 11. The Demons move to 4-1 to stay tied atop the conference standings and are 5-4 overall. Both Washington teams are back at it Monday night at Burlington Notre Dame in a doubleheader you can hear on 106.1 FM KCII.