The Washington Demons celebrated their first home basketball doubleheader of the season by sweeping Albia last night. In the girls’ game, Washington responded from an early deficit by finishing the first half on a 14-0 run and taking a 21-15 lead into halftime.

The Demons would only be up by four in the final two minutes, but behind nine points from junior guard Kendall Hinrichsen and good free-throw shooting, Washington closed the game out with an 11-3 run to secure a 53-41 victory.

Sophomore guard Adalyn Long hit three three-point shots and finished with a team-high 15 points, while Hinrichsen had 13 and sophomore Oaklee Sobaski scored nine off the bench. After the game, Demon head coach Shannon Rugg told KCII Sports that his team is learning how to finish games strong, while Hinrichsen said they closed things out with their pressure defense.

“We closed the second quarter at Wapello when we won over their for a scrimmage,” Rugg said, “we went to Muscatine and I thought we closed the half very good, and I think that [is because of] our depth. We play 11 kids, and I really don’t think there’s a huge drop-off [with] any of them.”

“I think we executed our press a lot better,” Hinrichsen said. “We were able to create turnovers and score on them, so that was good.”

Washington found itself trailing 17-10 after a quarter of play in the boys’ game, but after being down by as much as 10, the Demons used a 17-5 run of their own to close the first half with a 27-25 lead.

Washington stretched the advantage to as large as 15 points after halftime, and while Albia made a late push, the Demons would hang on and get the win by a final score of 58-53.

Washington got the win thanks largely to red-hot shooting, as the Demons knocked down eight three-pointers. Sophomores Drew Conrad and Kael Williams each hit a pair of threes and finished tied for the game high with 14 points each, while junior Logan McDole added 12. Washington head coach Collin Stark told KCII Sports after the game that his team responded well to some season-opening adversity.

“There was a stretch there where, in the first quarter, there was some good things,” Stark said, “and there was also a stretch where our shots weren’t falling. [Albia] went into a one-three-one [defense], and this early in the year, honestly we haven’t really done much [practicing] with a one-three-one, and so it took a little while for us to get comfortable looking at what we’re trying to do. I thought, once we got more comfortable, the shots started to fall.”

Both Washington basketball teams return to the court tomorrow night on the road against Grinnell. The Demons next return home Friday evening to start conference play against Keokuk, a doubleheader you can hear with coverage starting at 5:30 on 106.1 FM KCII.