Offensive woes slow Demon boys

Held to 10 or fewer points in three quarters of Tuesday night?s game against Marion, the Washington boys? basketball team wasn?t able to generate enough offense to win.

The Demons were held to 30.6 percent shooting on the night as they fell to Marion 61-39 in the contest to round up the 2015 portion of the season.

?We were impatient on offense and took a lot of tough, tough shots,? Washington head coach Bryce Smeins said. ?If you take a lot of tough shots, you won?t make many of them. We didn?t do a good job as a team passing the ball.?

The Demons were led by senior guard Derek Anding?s 16 points in the contest, which included three 3-pointers, followed by junior John Dillon, who notched eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

?John has played hard whenever he?s in the game,? Smeins said. ?He fights for rebounds. A lot of his success comes when he works hard and takes shots when he has them. He was all over the place and had a good night.?

The Demons fell behind early, with Marion doubling them up 36-18 in the first half.

Washington was held to six points in the third quarter before posting a 15-point fourth quarter to finish up the game.

The loss moves the Demons to 2-5 on the season (1-1 in conference play), and as they enter the winter break, Smeins hopes to work on the team?s offensive consistency.

?We need to be more consistent with our play,? Smeins said. ?We score 69 against Keokuk and then only 39 against Marion. The offensive execution has been really inconsistent. We just need to get a rhythm on offense and working consistently on defense.?

Smeins noted that one of the focuses of the midseason break would be to get forward Bryce Sinn more involved.

The Demon junior is averaging 7.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game this season, but was held to two points and four rebounds against the Indians.

?We need to get Bryce Sinn more shots and get him some better looks,? Smeins said. ?He has had some nice ballgames for us and we just didn?t get him enough looks (on Tuesday). We need to get better as a team all the way through.?

The Demons will open the 2016 portion of the schedule against Iowa Mennonite at home on Jan. 2.