Chiefs defense downs Washington

On a Friday night designated for cancer awareness and in a girls basketball game that the Washington Demons wore special pink uniforms in to increase that awareness, their coach was unable to attend because his wife was in the hospital dealing with an emergency appendectomy.

For a game that started a little after 6 p.m., assistant coach Jake Steen didn't find out head coach Shannon Rugg would not be at the game until 2 p.m.

'Everything went good with the surgery and she is doing good,” Steen said. 'Coach has already been in to see her. ”

The turn of events did not seem to bother the Demons initially, as they took a 12-8 lead by the end of the first quarter, but lost the game 43-33 to the visitors from Keokuk.

'We drew up some stuff right before the game that we haven't really worked on,” Steen said. 'The girls went out and executed what I was looking for. I thought they did a great job. I thought we all handled the surprise pretty well and had a fantastic effort. The thing that you look for as a coach is effort and they were awesome.”

The loss drops the Demons to 6-10 overall and 1-5 in the Southeast Conference. Keokuk has yet to lose in seven league games and is 10-4 overall.

'For our girls to go out there against the best team in our conference and put up with the new stuff that I expected out of them, that was awesome. The effort was awesome,” Steen said.

Isabel Bailey tied the game with the first Demon points being a 3-pointer. Kira Ropp scored an old-fashioned 3-point play. When Olivia Pacha netted consecutive buckets inside, the Demons had a 10-5 lead.

'Pacha did great,” Steen said. 'She is coming along. Every game she takes a better step towards becoming a really big contributor for us. I think next year she's going to be a stud.”

Keokuk coach Mike Davis exhorted his squad to step up their defense and the only Demon points of the second quarter were a Halee Wilson shot with 1 minute, 16 seconds left in the first half. Keokuk went into intermission ahead 19-14.

'Our kids just decided to start playing,” Davis said. 'I don't care what is going on outside, we should've played better. We got it done, so will take the win. It wasn't pretty, but we'll take it.”

Wilson scored the first bucket of the second half, but Keokuk went on a 7-2 run before Pacha again potted consecutive buckets to get within 26-22. The visitors closed the quarter on a 8-1 run for a 34-23 advantage to start the fourth quarter.

'I thought we handled their defensive pressure well since we were not able to practice against it,” Steen said. 'We tried a new press break against their full-court denial man-to-man and I thought we did a great job. Keokuk probably got four to six points off transition buckets. The first time we played them they had a lot more than that, so I thought the girls played great. Keokuk likes to live in chaos so I told the girls we just need to try to calm things down and play our game.”

Pacha finished with nine points and Kinsey Duwa had seven. Wilson scored six, Ropp five. Bailey and Halle Leyden each made a triple. Washington plays at Mid-Prairie tonight.