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Washington Evening Journal
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Messinger’s six 3s power Washington over Fairfield
Demons snap two-game skid with 26-point win
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Washington girls basketball coach Colin Mulford emphasized the need to start fast after his side fell behind by 11 points through one quarter in a 15-point loss to Ottumwa last Monday. It was the second defeat in as many games for Washington.
The Demons internalized the message and responded three days later. They came out firing in the first quarter en route to a 62-36 win over Fairfield on Thursday. Washington led 24-6 after the first quarter and extended its lead to 33-6 in the second.
“I was very pleased with that,” Mulford said. “The girls did a good job from the get-go with playing fast and sharing the ball, and it was just great to watch.”
Leighton Messinger hit six 3-pointers and finished with 19 points to lead Washington. She buried a pair of 3s from the right corner in the first half, didn’t miss a shot until the third quarter and added 10 rebounds and two steals to a productive outing.
Messinger’s hot shooting spread to the rest of the team as the Demons poured it on in the first two quarters. Five players made 3s on the night. Washington also limited mistakes with 15 assists to just seven turnovers.
“The past few games we’ve had really great defensive games, but just struggling to kind of find our groove on offense,” Messinger said. “It was nice, we’ve been working so hard in practice on our offense and spacing and finding those open shots and I think that definitely worked today.”
The Demons hit a cold spell in the third quarter as Fairfield switched to a 1-3-1 zone to limit open shots on the wing. That turned the period into a low-scoring affair as both teams combined for just nine points. Fairfield also deployed a platoon substitution system throughout the game, swapping five players in and out at once.
“Just trying to keep them fresh so that whenever they are out there they can just give everything that they’ve got,” Trojans coach Brian Witzenburg said. “I felt that we did that tonight, and I was really proud of how hard we worked.”
The Trojans only lost the middle two quarters by four points, but they weren’t able to keep the Demons bottled up in the fourth. Washington re-discovered its shooting stroke and navigated through Fairfield’s adjustments, outscoring the Trojans 21-17 in the final period.
“The girls did a great job with handling the different defenses that we kept throwing out; just random things to keep the other team on their toes and not know what we’d be in right away,” Mulford said. “Even though there was that lid on the rim that third quarter, the girls were still doing a great job with moving the ball. We were still getting wide open looks. So you knew eventually the lid was going to come off.”
Adalyn Long joined Messinger in double figures with 12 points, along with six rebounds, five assists and three steals. Reagan Miller hit two 3s off the bench and finished with nine points and four rebounds.
Oaklee Sobaski and Jaedyn Moore each chipped in five points. Vivienne Kroll scored four and grabbed three boards.
Faith Jones led Fairfield with 11 points and added one assist and a steal. Elyse Setterstrom scored with nine points, while Vanessa Kessel finished with five points and an assist.
