The Washington Demons took a loss last night to Muscatine 57-47.

Washington was up after the first quarter 17-7 when the Muskies were playing man-to-man and gave the Demons same great looks on offense, but in the second quarter Muscatine went to a 2-3 zone and out went the Demon’s offense, scoring just six and giving up the lead at half 25-23.

The Demons had 15 turnovers in the first half, on their way to having 22 in the game.

The second half was the same situation for Washington in turnovers, although they stayed with the Muskies the whole way, trailing by just two after three 39-37.

The Demons struggled in the fourth, letting Muscatine spread out the lead up to the final of 57-47

Adam Miller of the Muskies nailed six three pointers to lead Muscatine with 20 points, while Alex Coker led the Demons with 14.

Demon head coach Bryce Smeins said although it’s tough to lose there is a bigger picture with conference coming up.

“Like we told them in the locker room, the first four is kind of like preseason, because it doesn’t count for the conference it doesn’t count for your seeding, that starts on Friday night against Fairfield,” Smeins said. “Friday night is the conference game that goes into the tournament, and we’re finding out some things about these guys, they’re young, and haven’t had a lot of game experience, their experience is Roder and Hoffman, that’s it.”

Washington starts their conference season on Friday when they travel to Fairfield, and you can here that broadcast on AM and FM KCII. The one to count on for today’s local sports coverage is AM and FM KCII.