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Washington Evening Journal
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Demon defense suffocates Panther girls
Washington allows just 1 point in first half of SEC win
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MT. PLEASANT – You’d be hard-pressed to find a better defensive performance than the one put on by the Washington Defense girls basketball team on Friday night.
The Demons went into rival Mt. Pleasant looking for their second Southeast Conference win of the year, and a stellar effort on the defensive side of the ball helped them do just that.
Washington gave up just one point in the first half and just 17 on the game, en route to a 57-17 SEC road win.
“We emphasized talking more tonight, and I thought that helped us tremendously,” said Washington head coach Shannon Rugg. “We came out aggressively, played hard and we had a lot of fun.”
Neither team could find the hoop early on. Both offenses struggled to score in the first eight minutes, but the Demons did jump out to a 9-0 lead after the first break.
Washington’s offense woke up in the second. The Demons capitalized on a flurry of Panther turnovers and started nailing their outside shots. At the half, Washington enjoyed a 27-1 lead.
The Panthers were nearly shut out in the first half. Paityn Ensminger nailed a free throw with just 1:02 remaining in the second quarter to finally put Mt. Pleasant on the board.
“We struggled taking care of the ball,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Curt Watson. “We didn’t get lot of shots, and then when we did get shots, they rolled off.”
Washington continued to cruise in the final two quarters. The Demons put up 22 points to go up 49-4 after three periods, and it was too little too late by the time Mt. Pleasant started hitting shots.
“I think we were pretty confident,” said Demon leading scorer Adalyn Long. “We’ve been shooting well. The whole team has.”
Long led the Demons with 13 points in the win. Oaklee Sobaski scored 12 points. Kendall Hinrichsen scored nine points. Reagan Miller had eight. Sarah Burto finished with five, and both Addison Miller and Lauren Hinrichsen scored three points each.
The win came on the back end of a two-week stretch that saw the Demons struggle to put close games away, including a three-point loss to Grinnell earlier in the week.
“We really had confidence coming in,” said Sobaski. “We knew we needed to get this win.”
Ensminger and Abigail Shelangoski score five points apiece to lead Mt. Pleasant in scoring. Alexa Fuller scored four points. Kynlee White and Myah Starr each finished with one.
Washington is now 2-1 in the Southeast Conference. The Demons will play Fort Madison (3-0) on Jan. 3. Mt. Pleasant is 3-0, with a game against Keokuk (2-1) coming up on Jan. 3.
