The Washington Demon girls’ basketball team got the second half of the season started on the right note, defeating conference rival Burlington 60-50 Friday night. After an early 16-12 lead and a six-point advantage at halftime, Washington managed to push the lead to double digits in the third period and would have as large as an 18-point edge in the final quarter.

Sophomore Adalyn Long powered the Demon offense early by scoring 16 of her 22 points in the first half. Junior Kendall Hinrichsen helped close the door on Burlington by netting eight of her 10 points in the fourth quarter. Washington head coach Shannon Rugg told KCII Sports that the mentality of making winning plays that they always work on before games showed up on the court.

“They just do whatever it takes to win,” Rugg said, “and I am so proud of this group. I really believe this group has something special in them, and it’s just fun to watch them play and fun to watch them practice, because they come they just come and they just get after it, and that’s when good things happen.”

The Demons improve to 3-2 in the Southeast Conference and 6-5 overall. The Washington boys were not as fortunate, suffering a 72-58 defeat. Burlington built an 18-point lead in the second quarter before Washington trimmed the deficit to 32-27 at the halftime break. Unfortunately, the Demons could not contain the red-hot Greyhounds, who hit a whopping 12 three-point shots as a team and pushed the lead back out to as much as 21 points in the second half.

Junior Shaye Stringer had five of those three-pointers and scored 17 of his game-high 20 points to pace Burlington. Sophomore Rajan Roth scored a team-high 15 points for Washington, which drops to 2-3 in conference play and 4-6 overall. Both Demons teams will next play Monday against Burlington Notre Dame.