The Washington Demons came away with a pair of satisfying Southeast Conference basketball victories on the road against rival Fairfield Friday night. In the girls’ game, Washington trailed most of the night and was down by as much as 10 points. But, behind eight made three-point shots and pressure defense that forced turnovers, the Demons rallied for a 43-40 win.

Washington didn’t take their first lead of the game until the final minute, when sophomore point guard Adalyn Long hit a free throw as part of her team-high 13 points. Sophomore forward Addison Miller came off the bench to hit three three-pointers and score 10 points. After the game, Demons head coach Shannon Rugg told KCII Sports it was a gutsy win from his team to get their first conference victory of the season and improve to 3-3 overall.

“[I am] super proud of them,” Rugg said. “They’re finding ways to win [and] they’re finding ways to keep themselves in the basketball game give themselves a chance. I told them after the game [that] that’s what happens when you believe. Everybody believes in everybody, and this team has a different feel about it. They really, honestly, do believe in each other, and they believe they can win.”

The boys’ game was tied at 15 at the end of the first quarter, but Washington would cruise from there. The Demons finished the first half on 21-7 run to lead 36-24 at the break and got even hotter shooting the ball, going on to hit 11 threes as a team and leading by as much as 28 points in a 79-56 victory.

Four players were in double-figure scoring for Washington, including senior Roman Roth and junior Logan McDole with a game-high 19 points each and sophomore Drew Conrad and freshman Nic Stone with 15 points a piece. Demons head coach Collin Stark told KCII Sports that his offense finally found a spark.

“We kept talking about how the shots were going to fall,” Stark said. “They just have not been falling for us. It was Rajan [Roth that] hit a corner three right away, and you could just almost tell from the players that it was just like a breath of fresh air. [When] that first one fell, then the next one fell, Nic got hot, and it’s just contagious when you have that.”

The Washington boys also get their first win in the Southeast Conference this season and are now 2-3 overall. Both Demon teams next play Tuesday, with the girls hosting West Liberty and the boys traveling to take on Oskaloosa. You can hear the Washington boys at Oskie Tuesday night starting at 7 o’clock on 106.1 FM KCII.