Slow start hurts Demons

A stellar third quarter wasn?t enough for the Washington girls? basketball team on Tuesday night.

Despite posting a 22-point quarter, another slow start had put the Demons in a hole that proved to be insurmountable, as they fell to Marion 65-44.

?Our third quarter was awesome,? Washington head coach Jordan Bentley said. ?We scored 22 points, and in the second half we tied them 29-29. We can?t get ourselves in a hole in the first half and that?s what we did again. If we play a full game, we?ll compete with anyone. We have that potential, we just need to figure out how to get started at the beginning of the game.?

The loss moves the Demons to 2-5 on the season as they enter the Winter break.

Addie Pacha notched 11 points and 10 rebounds in the contest, but it was a balanced effort for a tired Demon team that has gotten them to this point, according to Bentley.

?Pacha did a great job of getting after it, and all of the kids performed really well,? Bentley said. ?We were worn out at the end of the game. We were down 21 at half and cut that lead down to 10 multiple times in the third quarter. We were right there multiple times to get things down to single digits. Everyone worked their butts off.?

Marion nailed 12 3-pointers in the game, and was defensively dominant in the game, holding Washington to 15 first-half points to take a 36-15 lead.

The Demons responded with their best quarter of the game to make it 53-37, bringing the game within 10 points multiple times, but couldn?t complete the comeback, falling in the game.

?We didn?t really turn the ball over,? Bentley said. ?We only had 14 turnovers on the night and took care of the ball. They hit a lot of 3s, and they were a good 3-point shooting team. We needed to do a better job of contesting some of those shots.?

As the team enters a week-and-a-half break, Bentley said the physical attributes are there for the team, they just need to work on generating the belief on the court.

?We let one or two games get away from us that were winnable games,? Bentley said. ?We?ve played four ranked teams in this first part of the season, and coming out of break we have to understand we can push ourselves to a .500 record. We just need to believe that we are better than what our record shows. The coaches believe it, we just need them to.?

Washington will resume its season on Jan. 2 when it hosts Burlington.