The Washington Demons secured a sweep of a conference basketball doubleheader at Fairfield Friday night. The Washington girls responded to an early deficit with a 16-0 run to end the first quarter and lead 19-6. From there, the Demons dominated, building a 19-point halftime lead on their way to a 60-30 victory over Fairfield.

Washington won with authority largely thanks to hitting 11 three-point shots as a team. Junior Adalyn Long knocked down three of those three-pointers on her way to scoring a game-high 18 points and helping her team improve to 3-4 in the Southeast Conference and 5-11 overall.

Freshman Reagan Miller connected four times from beyond the arc and had 14 points for the Demons, while senior Lauren Hinirchsen added a pair of triples and 11 points off the bench. After the game, head coach Shannon Rugg told KCII Sports that he felt a big shooting night was just a matter of time.

“We shot the ball really well this week in practice,” Rugg said. “I think our confidence has grown. We moved the ball extremely well, and everybody was ready to catch and shoot. We did a lot of really good things. I don’t really think we took a bad shot all night.”

The Washington boys saw an early lead dissipate after an 18-4 run put Fairfield ahead 27-19 in the first half. The Demons cut their deficit down to three by halftime and were in a tie game heading into the final period.

Washington would not go in front until just under four minutes to play, when senior Logan McDole hit back-to-back threes to first tie the game at 46 and then take the lead. The Demons would see the Trojans get as close as one, but a free throw from sophomore Nic Stone with two seconds left secured a 56-52 win.

McDole scored 12 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, while junior Drew Conrad added 14 points, 10 of them in the last two quarters, to end Washington’s five-game losing streak. Head coach Collin Stark told KCII Sports that his team heard his message about fighting through adversity.

“There’s a daily article that we share with the guys,” Stark said, “and there was one [that said] ‘When you’re up against the wall, winners persevere.’ We talked about that we’ve consistently shown up to practice [and] we’ve consistently worked hard, and, at some point, because of our hard work, good things are going to happen.”

The win raises the Demons’ record to 6-8, including a 4-3 mark in conference play. The Washington boys play again this weekend at Clear Creek Amana, and both teams will be in action on Monday at Ottumwa.