Ottumwa fells Demons late

A tough fourth quarter downed the Washington boys? basketball team on Friday night against Ottumwa.

The Demons kept things tight throughout the game, but fouls caught up to them in the final stanza, and they couldn?t recover, falling 70-52 in the road contest.

Two starters, Daryn Sebelius and Thomas Bump, and a key reserve, Jack Giardino, fouled out of the game for the Demons, in a game that saw Washington called for 24 fouls.

?We had guys on the bench who had fouled out, and missed some shots,? Washington head coach Bryce Smeins said. ?We were 9 of 20 from the free-throw line, and missed at least a dozen layups. We played pretty well through the first three quarters, we just didn?t make a lot of shots and hung in there. Down the stretch, that caught up with us a little bit.?

The Demons trailed by seven, 32-25, after halftime, and began closing the gap after that point.

At the end of the third, the Demons brought themselves within five points, but couldn?t recover as players started to foul out in the fourth quarter.

?I didn?t think it was an overly physical basketball game,? Smeins said. ?Both teams played hard and they just called a lot of fouls on both teams. I think there were 45 fouls called in the game, and when you foul out your sixth man and two starters, that hurts us.?

Washington has been trying to improve its offensive consistency in the 2015 portion of the schedule, and Smeins thinks things are improving, but that the team needs to simply knock down more shots.

?We got a little better after Christmas, and on Friday night we had a lot of good shots,? Smeins said. ?We had 57 shots on Friday; that?s a good number to get off and a lot were good looks, we just didn?t make them. Sometimes it just comes down to knocking down shots.?

Washington will host Lone Tree on Monday night.