The Washington Demons have one of their most important games of the boys’ basketball season on tap tonight when they host conference rival Mount Pleasant in a game you can hear on KCII. Despite some ups and downs in a 6-5 season, Washington is 5-1 in the Southeast Conference and tied for first place. Senior Ethan Patterson has picked up an already impressive scoring pace, pouring in 52 points across the last two games combined to raise his average to almost 19 points per game.

But the Demons’s only loss in conference play came in their first meeting this season with Mount Pleasant, as the 10-3 Panthers’ high-scoring duo of junior Payton Hagans and senior Aaiden Ashton turned a one-point game going into the fourth quarter into a 62-49 victory. Hagans scored 20 points in the earlier battle with Washington and is just behind Patterson with an average of over 18 points a game, while Hagans knocks down shots from the perimeter and is averaging over 14 points per contest, with his season-high of 30 coming in the December 16th game with the Demons. With Burlington also just a half-game out of first, Washington head coach Collin Stark tells KCII Sports his team is entering an important stretch of action.

“These next two weeks are going to be a big, big couple weeks for us, as far as the conference race,” Stark says. “I know college basketball kind of has dividing weeks where teams tend to separate themselves, and that’s what these next two weeks are. We’ve got the two big battles at the top of the conference, and I know our guys are going to be ready for those.”

Washington won the previous two meetings with Mount Pleasant before this season. The winner of tonight’s showdown between the Demons and the Panthers takes over sole possession of first place in the Southeast Conference. We’ll have coverage of Washington versus Mount Pleasant on 106.1 FM KCII beginning with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show at 7.