Five-game losing streak snapped Tuesday

The Washington girls basketball team pulled out a victory over Davis County Tuesday, Jan. 31, ending a streak of five losses in a row, by a final score of 67-33.

Davis County would have the first points in the game going up two to nothing, but Washington would make sure they would get on the board after Morgan Brinning would put in two from the free-throw line after being fouled.

She followed up with two more points on a steal a few seconds later to put Washington in the lead, before Davis County would draw a foul to tie the game, but that would be short-lived as Brooke Stout scored a bucket, giving the Demons the lead, something they would not relinquish the rest of the evening.

Kira Ropp would put in two from the charity stripe followed by one from Sarah Nacos after being fouled while going for a bucket.

Davis County would have one more bucket in the quarter, but Washington wasn?t finished with scoring in the first quarter as both Brinning and Stout would have one basket each putting the score at 13-6 after one quarter of play.

Ropp would have the first point of the second quarter as she would get fouled near the start. Davis County answered back by scoring four but Nacos responded with her first 3-pointer of the evening.

Davis County would have another bucket, but a bucket by Addison Six followed by two from the free-throw line by Brinning put the Demons up by nine about halfway through the quarter.

The two teams would take the ball up and down the court the remainder of the quarter with the final points coming from another 3-point shot from Nacos, giving Washington a 30-17 lead at the half.

After the break, Nacos continued adding points to the board by putting in two treys followed by another bucket from Ropp, adding to Washington?s lead.

Both teams would score two more before a technical foul was charged to Washington, giving Davis County two shots from the free-throw line, both of which were successful.

The two teams battled it out the remainder of the third quarter with Washington ending the frame up 48-28.

Washington dominated the fourth quarter as they only gave up five points to Davis County the entire time while putting up 19 points of their own, securing the victory and handing Davis County their 11th-straight loss.

Coach Jordan Bentley says the girls played one of their better games Tuesday.

?That shows in our turnover margin. We had nine in the first half and only two in the second half, for a total of 11. All-around, we played very well.?

The scoring came from all over the board with Nacos leading the team with 17 points, including four 3-pointers. Brinning scored 12 points, Ropp had nine and both Stout and Six had six point each.

Taylor Dicks had four points as did Haylee Wilson and Kinsey Duwa. Isabel Bailey had three points and Tori Brush scored two.

?Scoring-wise, all but two that played had points,? Bentley says.

?The girls are moving the ball and we talk about that with our offense. The more the ball is moving, the harder the defense has to work and the more open shots are the things you get.

?Hopefully we will see that progress and continue whether we are playing in a zone or man to man. We must have that ball movement.?

Free throws helped add to the scoring as well. ?It was good that we got to the free-throw line,? Bentley says.

?We can still do a better job of converting as we had around 50 percent, which isn?t great. We?d like to be in the 65- to 70-percent range and higher if we can. We definitely need to work from that point, but we did a good job in getting to the line tonight.?

Between now and Friday Bentley says over the next couple of days the team will work on getting some rest and staying healthy.

?We have a lot of games, but we will try to play with a lot of effort so we have to make sure we are rested up and keep executing and putting in game plans for our next opponents and take games one at a time.?

The win puts the Demon girls at 4-12, and next up for the girls is a home game against Fort Madison Friday, Feb. 3, beginning at 6:15 p.m.