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Washington bounced by Pella in 3A-5 semis
Demons finish campaign with 13-11 mark
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
PELLA — The Washington boys basketball team fell in the semifinal round of the Class 3A Substate 5 bracket Thursday night. The No. 5 seed Demons faced a tough test against No. 1 seed Pella, which is also ranked No. 4 in the Iowa High School Athletic Association’s 3A rankings. The Dutch lived up to that status with a 76-38 win.
Pella held Washington to just 14 points over the final two quarters. The Dutch broke the game open with an 11-2 run in the final 2:35 of the second quarter after they held a 28-22 lead.
Washington scored the first four points of the second half to cut Pella’s lead to 11. But that was as close as the Demons came as the Dutch turned the screws on defense and dominated the second half.
Pella finished the game with 13 steals and five blocked shots. By the 4:49 mark of the third quarter, the Dutch had a 47-30 lead.
“You could tell with this team that we played against is they score in bunches and they score pretty fast,” Washington coach Collin Stark said. “I think that's ultimately what happened today. It just got away from us pretty quick.”
Pella’s athleticism propelled it on both ends in the second half. The game had a high level of physicality and limited opportunities for both teams at the free throw line. Pella went 3 of 4 from the line, while Washington shot just two free throws all game — Kael Williams made a pair in the third.
The Dutch made just 5 of 24 3-point attempts, but found their main scoring avenue by feasting in the paint. Pella finished through contact and carved out paths to the rim to shoot an efficient 50% from the field. Jack McGuire led all scorers with 22 points on 10 of 11 shooting. Austin Schulte tallied 19 points.
“(We were) battling with the physicality of the basketball game,” Stark said. “You could just tell the physicality by guys being on the ground. It’s just one of those things where we just have to adjust to how the game is being called. That ended up being kind of the tough part of this battle.”
Washington initially worked around Pella’s defense and found a foothold in the game in the first half despite the Dutch’s efforts to limit Demons sharpshooter Nic Stone. The junior tallied 69 points in Washington’s last three games, but was held to just two Thursday.
Sophomore Tate Greiner and junior Ashton Manz stepped up in the first quarter with Stone covered and drilled 3-pointers to give Washington an early spark. The Demons started the game with a 5-0 lead and cut Pella’s advantage to five twice in the second.
Rajan Roth led Washington with 12 points, all of which came inside the arc. Greiner made three 3-pointers for nine points, while Williams chipped in six and Drew Conrad tallied four. Manz scored three and CJ Swailes finished with two.
Washington finished the season with a 13-11 record. The Demons went 4-6 in the Southeast Conference to finish fifth place. They avenged a pair of SEC losses to Burlington by beating the Grayhounds 53-50 in the first round of the 3A-4 playoffs, which gave the Demons their first postseason victory since the 2021-22 season.
Demons seniors Conrad, Williams, Roth and Swailes all wrapped up their Washington basketball careers. The group was recognized after Thursday’s came along with Carson Ryan, who died in a hunting accident in September. Ryan was also a senior at Washington and a member of the basketball program. The team has worm warm ups that read “play for Carson Ryan” with his number 30 in Ryan’s honor this season.
“This senior group really just continued to battle,” Stark said. “It was bigger than basketball this year of continuing to show up, continuing to give effort and that's ultimately what I'll remember about this group is that piece. And it's something that the younger kids can hopefully grow from and just know that whatever life brings to you, you can just continue to grind and battle and good things will happen.”
Stone, who led the team in scoring at 14.9 points per game, is eligible to return next season. Fellow juniors Manz, Boden Brown and Kobe Williams can also come back for their senior seasons.
Greiner can return for his junior year after he appeared in every game, including 17 starts this season. Fellow sophomore JaxRay Whisler and freshmen Bryer Sobaski, Julian Parsons and Easton Rugg are also eligible to return.
