The Washington Demon girls’ basketball team returns to the court this evening with their eyes set on another 2-0 start. Washington has won their first two games each of the last three seasons and has an opportunity to extend the streak to four straight seasons with a victory this evening. The Demons travel to Wellman for a non-conference game with rival the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks.
Washington has recently held the edge against Mid-Prairie, winning three of the four meetings between the schools since the 2011-12 season. Last season, Washington edged Mid-Prairie 46-44 in Washington.
Junior point guard Morgan Kimball is a player to keep an eye on for Washington in tonight’s game. Kimball had a career-high 23 points in the Demons’ season opening victory over Eddyville-Blakesburg (53-47) last Monday.
Head girls basketball coach Jay Zieglowsky says Kimball’s free throw shooting was the difference against Rockets.
“She shot over 2,000 free throws in the gym this summer,” Zieglowsky said. “I told her to go knock them down and had ice water flowing through her veins as she made nine out of 10.”
Mid-Prairie comes into the contest off a 58-45 loss to Fairfield last Monday. Starting seniors Taylor Kurtz and Ashley Sojka were limited to a combined two points in the loss. Both girls sustained injuries in the setback, but are expected to play in tonight’s game. Junior Alex Rath and sophomore Allison Butters led the way with 12 points each against the Trojans.
Mid-Prairie girls’ basketball coach Stephen Bender saw a lot of similarities between last year’s Washington team and this year’s Fairfield team. “I think Fairfield is a better shooting team this year than Washington was last year.” Bender said, However, Washington was very quick and really works hard pressuring the ball in an up-tempo game.”
You can hear tonight’s girls’ basketball game between the Washington Demons and the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks on AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com beginning with the Washington Hy-Vee Pregame show at 5:45 p.m and tip off set for 6:15 p.m.