Demons begin season with loss

WASHINGTON — The Washington Demons hosted Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont in a non-conference girls basketball game Monday night, the first of the season for the Demons.

Despite a valiant effort, the Demons fell in their season opener, 58-27.

Washington began the game with a stellar defensive effort. The Demons came out of the gates pressing the Rockets, and created a plethora of turnovers, 20 over the course of the game, holding them to just 11 points.

While the Demons played great defense, they struggled to find their shot. By the end of quarter one, Washington had only 6 points, all by junior Kaylin Long.

As the game went on, the Demons defense gradually broke down, and the Rockets took advantage.

Washington Head Coach Shannon Rugg said that the team had trouble rotating over on defense, and scoring, but was proud of his teams effort.

“They looked to attack the basket in the half court set,” Rugg said. “We didn’t do a very good job of rotating over. We went a long time without scoring. You can’t go six, seven, or eight minutes without scoring. They scored every couple of minutes and it gradually stretched out. I’m proud of this group, they played hard. We’re gonna play hard every single game.”

At the half, the Demons trailed the Rockets, 30-15.

To begin the third, both teams struggled to find a basket, but more-so the Demons.

Washington scored just 2 points, to the Rockets’ 15, over the course of the third quarter, leaving them trailing 45-17 going into the fourth.

The fourth quarter was much of the same, with the Demons scoring 10 points.

Long paced Washington with 10 points. Kendall Hinrichsen and Audrey Anderson both added 4. Jacey Berg finished with 3.

Alex Murphy, Iris Peterson and Lauren Hinrichsen all ended the night with 2 points.

Despite the loss, Rugg said that he’s glad the season has started, and he’s looking forward to seeing the team improve.

“I very excited, I think we had two good weeks of practice, we really worked hard,” Rugg said. “I’m looking forward to it, with just one senior in Elyse Hunt, she’s been a huge surprise on the offensive end. She’s looking more aggressive. She’s starting to figure out where her shots can come from. This group’s worked hard, and it’s game one so we got a lot of work to do.”

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