Another season on the hardwood begins tonight for the Washington girls’ basketball team when the Demons make a trip west to face Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.

A lot of new faces surround the Demon program, as they lost 70% of their scoring from a 12-10 campaign. Senior Anna Nacos is the lone starter back after leading the squad with 11.8 points a night. She shot at a 52% clip including 35% from behind the arc, dished out 1.4 assists a game, and managed 1.8 steals. The other senior on the squad is Josie Tanner, who recorded spot minutes last year and is a three point specialist. Juniors include Ava Turner, Greta Rothe, and Elyse Hunt with a few sophomores and freshmen coming off the bench. Head Coach Shannon Rugg describes what he wants to see from his young group in game number one. “We are looking for them to come out and compete at a high level. Are we going to make mistakes? Yes, but stuff that we make mistakes on has to be stuff that we can fix. It can’t be from a lack of effort. If you give 100% effort then we can fix everything else.”

The Rockets were 10-11 last year out of the South Central Conference and bring back three of their top five scorers. Emalee Davis returns after averaging 8.3 points and seven rebounds a night while junior Rylee German tries to improve off of seven points a game. The Rockets opened the year Friday falling to Lynnville-Sully 54-34 at home. 

The Demons have dominated the series winning the last 12 meetings dating back to 2006 including a 53-42 affair last winter. 

The season gets underway at 7:45 p.m. tonight at Eddyville-Blakesburg High School. Listen to the opener on AM and FM KCII with pregame set to begin around 7:15 p.m.