Washington came one game shy of picking up the season sweep off Fort Madison, with the girls picking up a 49-37 win and the boys falling short 55-45.
It was Senior Night for the Washington girls, and to earn a win, they’d have to go through a usually impressive Fort Madison team. As it turned out, defense was once again key in the Washington girls’ win over the Bloodhounds. The Demons led 16-10 after the first, but held Fort Madison to just a couple of free throws in the second quarter, taking a 24-12 lead into the half. The third quarter saw Washington make a few missteps, with Dayonna Davis and the Bloodhounds taking a few points back en route to a 30-23 score at the end of the third.
However, with Fort Madison inching closer, Leighton Messinger scored not just her first points of the game, but seven of them in a row, taking over and going on a solo run that pushed the deficit far beyond what the Bloodhounds could overcome. Washington ran out the clock for the 49-37 win.
Washington head coach Colin Mulford says this senior class, including Adalyn Long, Leighton Messinger, Oaklee Sobaski, Addison Miller, Taylor Miksch, Presley Hora, and Iris Dahl, have helped the program turn a corner. “Oh yeah, this senior class is super important. They’ve started to change the standard of Washington girls basketball a little bit. So that’s really good to see, you know. When you enter a program, as freshmen, you always want to leave it better than you found it and they’ve certainly done that.”
Miller also spoke with KCII after the game. She says it’s exciting to get a win on Senior Night. “Yeah, it really is an exciting thing to happen. The work that we’ve been putting in in practice has really paid off, and I think our tempo really kept us up tonight.”
Long led the Demons in scoring with 14. Messinger’s 9 was good for second best. Miller also had 8. The Bloodhounds were led by Dayonna Davis’ 17 and Hadley Wolfe’s 11. Washington improves to 11-8 on the season, and are at least guaranteed a .500 record for the season.
The Washington boys came out trying to score a repeat of their 21-point win against the Bloodhounds on the road. Sadly, the Demons never really got off the ground. In a much lower scoring game than the first meeting between the two teams, Washington fell behind early, only getting back to within four at the end of the first quarter on a wild 3-pointer at the buzzer from Tate Greiner. A slow moving second quarter saw the Demons creep back to 21-19 at the half. In the second half, for every basket Fort Madison scored, Washington seemed to have an answer, keeping it at least close through the third and most of the fourth. Unfortunately, that streak snapped, with Fort Madison going on a final run near the final few minutes of the game to pull away and claim a 55-45 win.
Kael Williams, fresh off his commitment to play football at Drake University this week, scored 14 to lead the Demons. Drew Conrad added 10. Fort Madison’s Nolan Guzman led all scorers with 21, and 6’10” post Darius Foy had 19. Washington drops its third straight, falling to 10-8, while Fort Madison improves to 3-15.
Washington will hit the road for more non-conference action Monday, taking on the Raiders of Williamsburg. You can catch that doubleheader on FM106.1, the KCII1 app, and kciiradio.com, starting at 5:30 p.m.