The Washington Demons will make their home debut tonight against the Albia Blue Demons and Lady Dees in a doubleheader on KCII.

The Washington girls are 1-0 on the season, fresh off a 58-32 win over Muscatine last week. The Demons shot 36% from the field and an impressive 31% from outside the arc. Washington cleaned up on the boards, out rebounding the Muskies 32 to 19. Senior Adalyn Long did most of the scoring work, picking up 29 points on 11-21 shooting. She also added 7 threes on 15 attempts. Fellow senior Addison Miller will look to add on to her totals from last Tuesday. She had 7 points on 50% shooting, and pulled down 4 rebounds.

This Tuesday’s opponent, Albia, is looking to turn things around following a 55-31 loss to Signourey prior to the Thanksgiving break. The Lady Dees, coming off a 17-6 season a year ago, lost several key players to graduation and are looking for players to fill in those roles this season. Freshman Mady Montgomery, coming off the bench in her first career varsity game, led the Lady Dees with 7 points. Senior Ayla Green added 4 points and 9 rebounds in defeat.

Following the girls game, the Washington boys will take to the floor for their first official action of 2025. Coming off of a 9-14 season, the Demons will look get back to .500 or more for the first time since the 2022 season. While Washington does lose its leading scorer from a year ago in Logan McDole, several key players do return from a year ago. Junior Nic Stone averaged 9.8 points per game last season. Leading rebounder Rajan Roth returns for his senior season after pulling down 5 rebounds per game in 2024. Meanwhile, guards Drew Conrad and Kael Williams will look to guide the offense. Head coach Collin Stark took questions at Washington’s winter media day before the season. He says the work the boys put in during the summer will pay off during the winter. “It was just cool to see that leadership starting then, and I think it’s starting to carry over now. And just that cohesiveness between the freshman, all the way to seniors, where just know each other a little bit more, maybe enjoy being around each other even more, I think that will show on the court as well.”

The Albia boys put together a 19-4 season last year. Like the Lady Dees, the Blue Demons will need to replace a lot of talent, but unlike the Lady Dees, that does not include their leading scorer. Gage Chance returns for his junior campaign after averaging 19.1 points per game as a sophomore. Chance worked plenty outside, shooting just under 40% from beyond the 3-point line, but also managed to crash the boards for a team-leading 7.4 rebounds per game as well. Other returning Blue Demons include senior Jaxon Strickler (2.9 PPG) and juniors Cole Wilson (1.4 PPG) and Drake Irwin (1.2 PPG).

Tonight’s doubleheader will kick off with the Demon Basketball Pregame Show at 5:30 p.m. on FM 106.1, the KCII1 app, and kciiradio.com. The girls game will tip-off at 6, with the boys to follow.