Demon girls fall to Knoxville in playoffs

It was a tough road test for the Washington girls? basketball team on Wednesday night as the playoffs opened up in Class 3A.

The Demons traveled to Knoxville for their first playoff game and fell 52-34, ending the season.

?It was a nice ballgame up until the fourth quarter,? Washington head coach Jay Zieglowsky said. ?The final score is not really indicative of what the game was. It was a five-point game at halftime, and nine at the end of the third. We just didn?t take care of the basketball really well.?

Senior Dylann Schluetter scored 12 points to lead Washington, while Sydney Hoffman had six points and picked up eight rebounds.

With the loss, the Demons fell to 6-16 to end the season, but Zieglowsky said he was happy with the team?s improvement throughout the year.

?I?ve had several people come up to me over the last week and say that we?ve gotten better over the course of the year,? Zieglowsky said. ?We?ve got a lot better basketball players than they were four months ago.?

Washington will graduate five seniors, but will have a lot of experience returning next season.

?We have a lot of experience coming back now,? Zieglowsky said. ?There?s a good group of juniors who are all capable of contributing and a couple of sophomores who can contribute. We?ll have three freshmen coming back, and there will be a lot of competition for playing time down the road.?

Despite a tough season, Zieglowsky said he has been proud of the team?s attitude and work ethic throughout the year.

?Adversity tells you what kind of character you?ve got,? Zieglowsky said. ?When you aren?t winning a lot of ballgames, you?ll face adversity and your true colors show. We are blessed as coaches to work with this group of girls and they never once got to the point where they didn?t want to play or work hard. They came every day to work and came with good attitudes.?