Demon boys basketball goes 1-1 in road tests

The Washington boys basketball split a pair of games on back-to-back nights. The Demons defeated Grinnell 72-60 on Monday before falling to Osklaoosa 66-42 Tuesday night.

Washington led by just six points after three quarters against the Tigers, but outscored the Grinnell 21-15 in the fourth to pull away. Drew Conrad scored nine points in the final period. Rajan Roth converted a layup with under two minutes left to push Washington’s lead back to seven after Grinnell cut it to five with a 3-pointer.

The Demons gained their initial separation with a 20-point third quarter. Grinnell matched Washington’s 13 points in the second and was down just three points at halftime. But the Tigers didn’t have enough defense in the fourth quarter to slow down the Demons scoring in crunch time.

Washington initially kept its late-game momentum against Grinnell going Tuesday night in another road environment. The Demons held a 15-14 lead after one quarter at Oskaloosa. The Indians took the lead back in the second, but only held a four-point advantage at half.

With the game still in the balance, Oskaloosa snatched control. It scored the first six points of the third and went on a 14-2 run in the first in just under five and a half minutes. The Indians outscored the Demons 20-9 in the third.

Washington couldn’t find the same surge in the fourth quarter that it did against Grinnell. The Demons managed two points in the first 4:51 of the final period, and Oskaloosa cruised to victory.

Washington (4-2, 1-1 SEC) will look to rebound in its third conference game of the season against Mt. Pleasant on Friday. The Panthers (1-4, 1-1) lost to Benton Monday.

Tipoff between the Demons and Panthers is set for 7:30 p.m. The game will be streamed on the Southeast Iowa Live YouTube and Facebook pages.