The Washington Demon boys’ basketball team used a dominant second-half effort to pull away and defeat the Keokuk Chiefs 69-45 Friday. Washington saw a 16-point first half lead whittled down to 29-23 at halftime, but the Demons doubled up the Chiefs in the third quarter to go up 53-35 and never let up. Keokuk had no answers for Washington senior guard Ethan Patterson, who set the nets ablaze by hitting a season-high eight three-point baskets and scoring 20 of his game-high 31 points in the second half. Demons head coach Collin Stark told KCII Sports that it was great to see Patterson break out of a rare shooting slump.

“The lid on the bucket finally came off,” Stark said, “and it was fun to see. I think a lot of the guys knew that that’s the Ethan Patterson that we’re so used to, and hopefully this is the first of many of these types of games for him [this season].”

Sophomore Logan McDole added 15 points and senior Avery Six scored 10 as Washington improves to 5-1 in the Southeast Conference and 6-5 overall. The Demon girls were not as lucky, suffering a 47-28 loss at Keokuk. Washington trailed 10-0 and never recovered despite a solid defensive effort. The Demons drop to 6-5 overall and 3-3 in conference play. Both Washington teams play next Monday night against Anamosa, which you can hear on 106.1 FM KCII.