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Washington Evening Journal
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Demons defense shines against Big Reds
Washington holds off Centerville in Monday night matchup
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WASHINGTON — Washington girls basketball did everything it needed to on Monday night against Centerville.
The Demons put together an all around performance against the Big Reds, ending a four game slide with a 45-35 win.
Centerville opened the scoring in the out of conference bout, but once Washington got a 5-2 lead off a three from freshman Reagan Miller they would never let the Big Reds back into it.
The Demon’s defense shined early. Washington gave up just four points to the Big Reds through almost seven minutes in the first quarter.
A three ball from Oaklee Sobaski gave the Demons a 10-4 lead with just 1:30 to go in the opening quarter.
A pair of free throws by Centerville cut it down to four, but Adalyn Long notched and one with just 1.4 second left in the frame to make it 12-6 after one.
The Demons did well to shutdown the Big Reds leading scorer in Adriana Howard. Howard averages 17 points and 14 rebounds a game. Washington held her to just one field goal in the first quarter.
“We wanted to try and not let her get the ball,” Washington head coach Shannon Rugg said. “We started Addie (Adalyn Long) on her and she played the majority of the time. I thought she did an outstanding job.”
Centerville gave Washington some push back to begin the second quarter. Five unanswered points from the Big Reds cut the Demon lead down to one at 12-11. That’s as close as they would come the rest of the way.
It took Washington four minutes to find its first bucket of the second quarter, but another three from Miller gave the Demons a four point cushion at 15-11.
Miller, who finished with a team high 14 points, scored the first five points of the quarter for Washington all coming in the final four minutes.
Meanwhile, aside from Centervilles’ quick start, the Demons only gave up one more field goal the rest of the period and that came on a shot to beat the buzzer by Howard.
To open the second half, the Demons quickly built their largest lead to that point. Just 30 seconds into the third, Adalyn Long buried a three followed by a Kendall Hinrichsen two to put the Demons up 25-14.
The Demons kept it around an 10 point game for the majority of period until the 3:00 mark. Centerville rattled off an 8-0 run in a two-minute span to cut it down to four, 31-27.
However, another Reagan Miller three propelled the Demons to a 5-2 run to end of the quarter. Heading into the fourth, Washington led 36-29.
The Demons continued to hold off the Big Reds in the fourth.
After back-to-back buckets by Centerville had the game down to seven at 40-33, the Demons gave up just two more points the rest of the night.
“We’ve been playing great defense,” Rugg said. “In the last eight games we’ve really dug in and competed in that regard. If we get out defense set and ready to go, teams have really struggled against it. Just super proud of the girls. We’ve been playing a lot of close games.”
Reagan Miller finished with 14 points for the Demons. Adalyn Long followed with nine points and Sarah Berdo added seven. Addison Miller scored seven points as well. Oaklee Sobaski scored four. Kendall Hinrichsen and Lauren Hinrichsen each scored two.
Washington improves to 4-9 with the win and will play at Keokuk on Friday.
