Demons start 2026 hot

FT. MADISON — The Washington basketball teams kicked off the new year in style on Friday night. The Demons traveled south and dropped the ball on Ft. Madison in a pair of Southeast Conference games.

The Washington girls stuck it out for a huge 50-44 victory to move up in the conference standings, and the Demon boys routed the Hounds 86-65.

  Buy Photo

The Washington girls used a strong defensive effort to lead 26-20 at the half and 39 — 34 after three quarters. Washington hung on to win and stay within one game of first-place Keokuk in the SEC standings.

Adalyn Long put up 19 points in the victory to lead the way. Reagan Miller added 14 points and seven rebounds off the bench, hitting four 3-pointers.

Leighton Messinger scored eight points. Vivienne Kroll had four. Addison Miller finished with three, and Sarah Berdo tallied two.

The Demon boys took a 45-29 lead into halftime. Ft. Madison did scrap back to cut the advantage back to 10 points by the end of the third quarter, trailing just 59-49, but the Demons scored a game-high 27 points in the fourth.

Rajan Roth went off for 25 points to lead the Demont to victory. Nic Stone and Drew Conrad each put up 17, and Kael Williams tallied 16 to give Washington four players over 15 points on the night.

Washington then knocked off Clear Creek-Amana on the road, coming back from a late deficit to win the game late.

In Tiffin, it was Nic Stone who had the eventual game-winning shot, knocking down a go-ahead 3-pointer that put the Demons up 73-71 with under a minute remaining. Conrad knocked down a couple of clutch free throws down the stretch to bring it to 75-72, and CCA didn’t get a shot off to tie the game.

After a successful weekend, the Washington girls are now 6-2 overall and 3-1 in conference play, while the Demon boys are 7-2 and 3-1.