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Tough second half start, difference maker in Demons loss to Mustangs
Washington goes scoreless for seven minutes to begin second half in loss to Mount Vernon
WASHINGTON -- Washington’s boys basketball’s Tuesday night matchup with Mount Vernon was just a tough shooting night for the Demons.
The Demons saw a four point halftime deficit turn into a 25 point deficit in seven minutes which culminated into a 64-38 loss.
At the break, the Demons were down 30-26.
However, what momentum the Demons had prior was erased as the Mustangs opening the second with a 21-0 run, giving them a 51-26 lead.
It wasn’t until the 1:21 mark in the frame that Logan McDole ended the unanswered run. The damage could not be made up. In all, the Demons were outscored 27-7 in the third.
Mount Vernon didn’t give anything back as it took the fourth 7-5.
“Our scoring went in waves,” Washington head coach Collin Stark said. “I feel like we gave great effort and our energy was there. We have to take this one as a learning experience.”
Both Washington and Mount Vernon were evenly matched through one quarter. The Demon’s offensive struggles were not apparent through the first four minutes. Washington opened up a 12-6 lead through that span, but Mount Vernon closed on a 6-0 run to knot the game at 12s.
The scoring struggles continued into the second. Washington next bucket came from Drew Conrad at the 4:02 mark in the second. That ended a scoring drought that lasted over six and a half minutes between the first and second quarter.
Despite the tough shooting, the Demons held strong on the defensive side of the ball and were down just six, 19-14, following Conrad’s two.
“If this team is playing together as a unit defensively we can do some good things,” Stark said. “It’s not just one guy with our size. It has to be all five. In that first half I though we were making it difficult. Those were things we didn’t have in the second half.”
Mount Vernon pushed its lead to 22-14 before the Demons got right back into it through the final two and a half minutes.
A two from Rajan Roth kick started what was a 12-8 run to the end of the quarter. The Mustangs went up by as much as nine in that peirod, but back-to-back threes from Noah Greiner and Roman Roth got the Demons right back into it.
“This team has capabilities,” Stark said. “We have hit a spot where adversity is a good thing. It’s a good learning experience. It just happens to be at the end of the year, but this team works hard.”
Washington drops to 6-13 and will take on Solon in its regular season finale on Thursday.
