Demons dog Grayhounds

BURLINGTON - To say the Demons were without the services of Kasen Bailey is not accurate. While Bailey entered and left the gym on crutches and did not suit up or play, he still was a factor in Washington's 67-57 victory over Burlington that put the Demons back in first in the Southeast Conference boys basketball race with a 6-2 record versus the Grayhounds 4-2.

Trashaun Willis provided clutch play with his highest point total (20) since Washington clinched last year's SEC title with an overtime win against Keokuk (22).

'Playing without Kasen, we had to make our own openings, so we preached about moving because in basketball you can't stand around,” said Willis, who snagged 10 rebounds.

Because Bailey is the primary ballhandler, the Demons focused on more passing and it was evident from the amount of assists. Willis had seven, Ethan Patterson six, Lance Sobaski five and Lucas Kroll four.

Sobaski had his highest point total with 16 and grabbed seven rebounds.

'I don't really care about points, although if I get a chance, I'll take the shot,” Sobaski said. 'I played all right but to me, it's more important how well my team played off of each other.”

'The way we shared the ball led to this being the best our team has played,” said Patterson, who scored 17 points, nine in the first quarter on three 3-pointers. 'We handled pressure a lot better than we have, so that led to a lot of layups.”

It was a 19-16 lead after starting the game on a 13-6 run. Burlington tied the game at 22, took the its first lead at 25-24 but Trevor Leyden, who scored 10 points and took a charge in the third quarter that gave a BHS player his fourth foul, netted two free throws to give Washington a 30-29 lead at the half.

Willis got one of his four blocked shots to open the second half but both teams had trouble scoring.

'It felt like we were on a 10-0 run to start the second half and really is was a 2-0 run, then they got hot and that was that,” Burlington head coach Caleb Akey said. 'My hat's off to them because the Bailey kid that is out is a fantastic player.”

A Leyden three was part of a 11-3 run to close the third quarter ahead 47-40. BHS never got closer than six in the fourth and Washington led by as many as 12.

'Even though Kasen is hurt, he still is on the bench and, believe me, we can hear him,” Sobaski said. 'I think that gave us really good energy coming from the bench. We hit our shots, played good defense, switched up a couple things and that made a difference.”

'This might be the most complete game that we have played,” WHS head coach Collin Stark said. 'That's saying something because we could've easily thought, ‘oh we're down a great player, how are we going to replace him.' It doesn't have to be one person. It can't be. It was everybody. Every single person that came into the game gave us great minutes.”

The Demon defense held last year's league's leading scorer, Michael Alexander, to eight points on 3-of-10 shooting. Trent Burnett had 13 and Amarion Davis 12 for BHS.