It’s do-or-die time for the Washington Demon girls’ basketball team as they visit Assumption of Davenport in the quarterfinals of the Class 3A Region 2 tournament tonight, a game you can hear on KCII. Washington has made notable progress, as a program that won only six total games the last two seasons started this season out by winning five of their first eight. Freshmen Adalyn Long and Leighton Messinger provided a much-needed scoring boost, while senior forward Alex Murphy was averaging almost a double-double.

But things have been different for the Demons since the calendar turned to 2023. Washington has won only two games since the beginning of January, dropping their record to 7-13 as the playoffs begin. Long and Murphy are still averaging better than nine points per game, and the Demons play consistently solid defense, giving up only 47 points a game to opponents. But Washington shoots only 31 percent from the field overall and less than 25% on three-pointers, resulting in offensive struggles that have only made the second half of the season harder. Demons head coach Shannon Rugg tells KCII Sports that one way they’re trying to boost the offense is to get Murphy more touches.

“We made a little more concerted effort to get it down inside to her,” Rugg says, “and I thought she played a really good game against Williamsburg [Monday]. Hopefully she can come back and do that.”

Washington will be looking to knock off an Assumption team that is 13-8. Led by junior Maddy Nigey’s three-point shooting and senior Ava Schubert’s 12 points per contest, the Knights have won four of their last five. Washington looks for its first playoff win since 2021 when they travel to take on Assumption. Join us for coverage live from Davenport on 106.1 FM KCII and streaming on KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show at 6:30.