Muskies spoil Demons? opener

A late run wasn?t enough for the Washington boys? basketball team to salvage their season opener on Tuesday night.

The Demons hosted Class 4A Muscatine in the home opener, and fell in a quick hole to the Muskies, trailing 24-4 after one quarter and 44-11 at half.

Washington closed the gap, but it wasn?t enough as they fell 66-43, dropping to 0-1 on the year.

?We played hard,? Washington head coach Bryce Smeins said. ?That wasn?t the issue. We just didn?t play very well at times. Some of that was us, but a lot of it was Muscatine being able to put pressure on and being bigger than us at every position.?

That height hurt the Demons early, as the Muskies jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, with all the points coming inside the paint, forcing the Demons to adjust their defense.

?You really can?t (match up well),? Smeins said. ?We have to play as a team and play hard. They have a 6-foot-7 kid and a 6-foot-6 kid who is pretty good too. We just tried to match up and play the best we could. We had to play a lot of man (defense) tonight, because we weren?t getting much done in zone. It was a good learning

experience.?

The 6-foot-7 athlete, sophomore Joe Weiskamp, who is verbally committed to play basketball for the University of Iowa, finished the game with a game-high 19 points for Muscatine.

After the Muskies exteneded their lead to 44-11 at halftime (and 58-22 at the end of the third quarter), Washington started to string together some

baskets.

Led by five 3-pointers, and a three-point play, the Demons went on a 19-4 run in the fourth quarter, outscoring Muscatine 21-6 in the final frame to close the game.

Washington senior Derek Anding finished the game with a team-high 12 points, eight of which came in the second half, while sophomore Dalton Myers had nine and sophomore Jack Redlinger finished the contest with eight points.

?In the last five or six minutes the defensive pressure wasn?t quite as intense as it was early,? Smeins said. ?Jack and Dalton (each) hit a couple. It was their first varsity experience and a chance to get their feet wet tonight against a really good basketball team.?

While Muscatine will be one of the top teams the Demons face all season, Smeins said they have to handle the loss in the right way, as they are in the midst of a brutal opening stretch which will see the Demons play five games in eight days.

?You have to keep your composure,? Smeins said. ?Muscatine was physical tonight and that?s typical of a 4A school. They play a little different physical level then we do, and we got rattled a couple of times. We have to be able to handle that.?

The next game on that stretch will be a conference matchup against Fairfield, who swept the Demons by a combined nine points this past season. In that game, Smeins hopes to see his team physically match up better with the Trojans.

?We have to rebound better on both ends,? Smeins said. ?I?m not sure if we got an offensive rebound, and we gave up a truckload. That?s something we have to be better at and we have to run our offense. Muscatine took us out of it tonight so we never got into it.?

The girls?-boys? doubleheader will tip off at 6 p.m. on Friday night, with the boys playing at approximately 7:30 p.m.