Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Golden Hawks run past Demons
No. 13 Mid-Prairie’s motor too much for Washington in intra-county rivalry
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
The No. 13 Mid-Prairie girls basketball team made one thing clear Monday night. It wants to go fast.
Mid-Prairie rolled into Washington on a five-game winning streak, which it promptly extended to six with a 61-40 win over the Demons. The Golden Hawks took the lead using their pace and led by at least 15 points for the entire fourth quarter.
“It’s super fun,” sophomore Tessa Bombei said of Mid-Prairie’s quick-tempo offense. “We’re a pretty fast team, so we do a great job of looking it up and passing it early and finishing.”
Mid-Prairie outscored Washington 29-19 in the second half. It set the tone for the final 16 minutes with an 8-1 run in the final 2:33 of the second quarter and scored the first seven points out of the break.
Bombei involved in a bulk of Mid-Prairie’s points and became a menace for Washington in the lane. The sophomore finished with 17 points to lead all scorers and added 3 rebounds, four assists, one steal and a block.
“That kid just has an engine that never ever stops,” Mid-Prairie coach Jenny Hobbs said. “She’s so competitive. If I’m going into a battle, I’m taking Tessa.”
Brooklyn Schneider and Morgyn Bender were also in double figures for the Golden Hawks with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Jovi Evans finished with eight points and six assists, while Jeorgia Evans had six points and five rebounds. The Golden Hawks spread the wealth, racking up 20 assists on 26 made field goals.
“We were looking for each other,” Hobbs said. “I thought we passed the ball extremely well... You think about it, we had some drives, but there was a lot of good passes (and) passes ahead. I thought we ran the floor extremely well and put pressure on them.”
The turnover battle was relativity even for both sides with Washington committing 15 to Mid-Prairie’s 13. The Golden Hawks made the difference by cashing in Washington’s mistakes, and made sure they didn’t fall asleep on defense when the Demons had a possession deep into the shot clock.
Washington improved in the third quarter, holding Mid-Prairie to 13 points after allowing 19 in the second. The Demons grabbed seven offensive rebounds compared to nine for Mid-Prairie, but struggled early against the Golden Hawks transition offense. Mid-Prairie’s 27 defensive rebounds consistently turned into 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 opportunities on the break.
“A negative term is ‘cherry pick,’” Washington coach Colin Mulford said. “They’re not (doing that), they just start to leak out so they can really push that ball down and try and get easy buckets because they just have so much faith in the rest of their team to go get the rebound.”
Reagan Miller finished another game in double figures as a substitute for Washington with 10 points, along with five rebounds and two assists. Adalyn Long also scored 10 points.
Ashlynn Long helped keep Washington in the game early with a strong stint off the bench in the first quarter and finished with seven points. Sarah Berdo added six points and five rebounds.
Mid-Prairie (14-5, 10-2 River Valley South) used its momentum against Washington to avenge an early-season loss to No. 11 Tipton on Tuesday. The Golden Hawks won the ranked matchup 52-42 and faces another tough opponent in Class 2A No. 10 Regina Catholic on Friday.
Washington (10-8, 5-3 Southeast) next faces a key conference clash against Ft. Madison on Friday. The Bloodhounds lost to the Demons 50-44 on Jan. 2, one of just two SEC defeats this season.
