The Washington Demons fell short in both conference basketball games this past Friday at Fort Madison. The Washington girls hung tough early, keeping the game tied at 10 at the end of the first quarter and even at 19 by halftime.
The Demons briefly grabbed a four-point lead early in the third period, but that’s when Fort Madison turned on the jets with a 21-5 run to go in front 41-29, and the Bloodhounds would hold on from there to win 57-45.
Freshman Reagan Miller led Washington in scoring with 13 points, while Lauren Hinrichsen had 12 points off the bench and fellow senior Kendall Hinrichsen added 11. The loss means the Demons fall to 4-5 in the Southeast Conference and 6-14 overall.
The Washington boys came out and lit up the scoreboard, building on a 27-21 lead after one high-scoring quarter with a 17-7 run to start the second period. The lead would still be double digits going into the halftime locker room, but Fort Madison finished the third quarter on an 18-9 run and cut the lead to 57-55.
The fourth quarter would be a back-and-forth affair, with the Demons holding a slim lead in the final seconds. But Bloodhounds senior Dayton Lamar caught a lob pass on an in-bounds play with time winding down and laid it up and in to tie the game at 69 and force overtime. Fort Madison built a four-point lead in the extra session, but Logan McDole responded for Washington.
The senior hit a three-point shot with a minute left to make it a one-point game, then another 18 seconds left to tie things up, plus a free throw after being fouled on the shot that put the Demons ahead 80-79. Unfortunately, the Bloodhounds would get a free throw from junior Nolan Guzman to again even the score and force double overtime.
Senior Julian Dear answered another McDole three-pointer with one of his own to put Fort Madison up 85-83 early in double OT, and they would have the lead in the waning seconds, where a pair of Washington attempts to tie went awry as the Demons suffered a 90-87 loss.
Even in defeat, McDole was brilliant for Washington, pouring a game-high and career-high 34 points and knocking down five total triples. Sophomore Nic Stone connected four times from three-point range and scored 13 points, while Rajan Roth also had 13 and fellow junior Kael Williams added 10.
The Demons hit a total of 13 treys in a close loss, dropping them to 8-11 overall and 4-5 in conference play. Both Washington teams are off until their next conference games against Burlington, with the girls playing Tuesday and the boys on Friday.
You can catch both editions of Demon basketball on KCII starting with pregame coverage both nights at 7 o’clock on 106.1 FM and streaming on KCIIradio.com and the KCII app.