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Washington boys hoops comes up short vs. Grayhounds
Demons suffer second SEC loss
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Washington boys basketball dropped its second Southeast Conference game of the season Friday. The Demons found runs against Burlington after falling behind early, but lost their rhythm in the fourth and suffered a 66-56 defeat.
The game seemed primed for a thrilling finish after Rajan Roth calmly buried two free throws to tie things up 48-48 with 20 seconds left in the third quarter. The Grayhounds made the most of their final possession, running a pick-and-roll that left Kobe Edmunds wide open on the right wing for a 3-pointer.
Edmunds’ make turned out to be the dagger for Washington. It would be the closest the Demons would come to taking the lead as Burlington went on a 7-0 run to start the fourth. They generated that run with a strong halfcourt trap on defense, which flummoxed Washington’s normally disciplined backcourt, which coughed up four turnovers in that span.
“It’s one of those games where they got us out of our comfort zone,” Washington coach Collin Stark said. “When we valued the basketball and were able to get the ball into the right spots against their press, that’s when we made our runs. Defensively I thought we had stretches of very good defense, being in the right spots. At the end of the day I think they shot a little bit better than us tonight and had a little bit less turnovers.”
Burlington’s fourth quarter start mimicked the first quarter when also forced four Washington turnovers during an 11-0 run to take an 18-7 lead. Washington struggled to to find a foothold until the second quarter when it outscored Burlington 15-10.
“It’s a little uncharacteristic of us, even defensively, them scoring 20 points in that first quarter,” Stark said. “You could just tell, it was 21-12 after that first quarter, it was our turnovers that fueled their offense there.”
Four players still finished in double figures for Washington. Roth led the way with 15 points. Drew Conrad finished with 12 and Kael Williams had one of his stronger offensive games, scoring 14, including five points in the third quarter.
Williams gave Washington a 33-31 lead early in the period with a 3. The Demons had their most successful stretch of the game in the third with just four missed shots and three turnovers. Nic Stone scored six of his 10 points in the period. Washington went on a 7-2 run to make it 45-44 Burlington with one minute to play.
“When we’re at our best, we’re sharing the basketball,” Stark said. “I think in this game there were key stretches of that. It just ended up (we) didn’t quite get some shots to fall and didn’t quite get that much minutes of stringing that type of basketball together to get the W, but we’ll learn from it and grow from it.”
As crunch time arrived, the Grayhounds proved to have enough balanced scoring to match Washington as they continued to pounce on any wayward passes. Edmunds led all scorers with 17 points. Jett Morris scored 13. Michael Kantzavelos and Keshawn Wyldon finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Washington (7-3, 3-2 SEC) will recalibrate before a road trip to the SEC’s top side Keokuk on Friday. The Chiefs (7-2, 4-0) will face Ft. Madioson on Tuesday before hosting the Demons.
