Ottumwa, Washington split boy-girl doubleheader

WASHINGTON - It's most always a good sign when a coach asks a player to purposefully miss a free throw.

Washington head girls coach Shannon Rugg made that request of Anna Nacos Monday in a nonconference high school basketball game.

Nacos missed after making the first of two foul shots and the Demons secured a 41-38 victory.

Free throws contributed to the difference in the boys game as Ottumwa was 12-of-14 in the fourth quarter but 6-for-11 in the first three quarters and walked away with a 71-48 victory.

The boys game was close in the first half with Ottumwa leading 18-14 after a quarter and 28-24 at halftime.

'Washington plays the equivalent of Class 4A basketball,” Ottumwa boys head coach Neil Hartz said. 'They are physical and they like to attack. The biggest difference for us was how we defended. We decided to get after people. When we do that we are good. In the first half, we were complacent and slow on rotations and we fixed that at halftime.”

Trae Swartz scored 12 of his game-high 30 points as Ottumwa moved out to a 50-41 lead after the third quarter.

'Our help side defense was not there,” WHS coach Collin Stark said. 'We were too worried about who we were guarding. We were tight as a group in the first half, but we did not show up in the second half. We did well in the first half against Swartz. I don't really have an answer to what our problem was in the second half. The thing is we just have to regroup and be ready to play Fairfield.”

Ottumwa is 6-7 in boys play while the girls are 8-5.

Trevor Quigley had 10 while Trashaun Willis had 14 that included an awesome dunk in the second quarter and his 3-pointer in the first quarter gave the Demons their only lead at 11-9. Ethan Patterson had eight.

The Demon boys are 9-4 and return to Southeast Conference play when they host Fairfield today. Washington's girls are 9-5 and play at SEC foe Burlington Friday.

Nacos has been the key in a number of close games for her ball handling and scoring, pouring 19 points with three 2-pointers, three 3-pointers and 4-of-6 free throws. She also had 19 in an overtime win against Mt. Pleasant and 23 in a win over ranked Notre Dame recently.

'Anna has doing a lot of scoring, but that's just the way the game goes,” Rugg said. 'I think people are concentrating on our bigs, so she is able to take advantage of it.”

Experience always contributes to the knowledge of how to excel.

'I think it helps to have played in these pressure situations before,” Nacos said. 'I think we are all getting used to it. The end-of-the-game situations will help us further down the road.”

The Demons have been working on getting a quicker start.

'We came out ready to go,” Nacos said. 'Maybe it was because we were the first game and there's a boys game after but I don't know. We just told ourselves in the locker room ahead of time that we were going to win and we repeated that. I thought all of us did a good job scoring in the first half. Maybe if they start at our games at six.”

The Demons had 15 points in the first quarter, six from Kinsey Duwa, five from Nacos and buckets by Addison Six and Kellie Dallmeyer, who returned after missing some games due to injury.

'I think the fact that we were pressing to start the game helped our scoring a little bit,” Rugg said. 'I think it got us going, got our blood flowing a little faster and made us more ready to play. I'm really proud of them.”

The Demons went on an 11-4 run for a 26-23 halftime lead.

'Washington moved us off the 3-point line in the second quarter and we weren't comfortable with that,” Ottumwa coach Joe VandenBerg said. 'We don't like midrange jumpers.”

The third quarter was 4-4 to make it 30-27 entering the final frame.

'We dug in on the defensive end the whole second half and even in the second quarter,” Rugg said. 'We got stops, got run outs with the ball and knock down some shots.

We found a way to win and that's what good basketball teams do.”

Ottumwa tied it at 34 with 5 minutes left in the game then took a 36-34 lead.

'We don't rely on one person and we take what teams will give us and they have been giving us Anna,” Rugg said.

Nacos buried a trey with 1:50 left for a 37-36 lead but Ottumwa answered to lead 38-37. After a Washington missed shot, there was a scramble for the rebound. Nacos found the ball and buried another triple with :28 remaining. A defensive stand led to her final point with under a second left.

'Nacos is a good player and she really stepped up and made some plays for them,” VandenBerg said.

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