Washington girls basketball team loses to Muscatine Tuesday

The Washington girls basketball team played in their first home game of the second half of the season Tuesday, Jan. 17, versus the Muscatine Muskies; however, the game ended with a 34-55 loss for the Demons.

Washington got on the board early after Isabel Bailey drew a foul and made one of two from the free-throw line.

Muscatine started off their scoring with a 10-point run before Bailey went back to the line for another shot at free points.

She was only successful in dropping one before Muscatine scored four more points to end the quarter up 14-2.

Both teams answered each other?s points in the first part of the second quarter before Muscatine went on a five-point drive to slowly pull even further ahead.

Taking another chance at points from the charity stripe was Bailey who this time dropped both. Muscatine went on to add a total of 14 in the quarter to Washington?s 11, to put the score at 28-13 at the half.

Washington just couldn?t catch a break in the second half of the game as they could only score 10 points in the third quarter while Muscatine would add 16 putting the game at 44-23.

Both teams scored 11 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn?t enough for Washington as they would take the loss, putting their record at 3-8 for the season.

Coach Jordan Bentley said of the night, ?after the first quarter I thought we played pretty even. If we don?t look at the first quarter, we were down by seven most of the game.

?We could have played a little differently, especially in the second half and in the fourth quarter; our effort was a lot better than what we were doing in the first quarter.?

The slow start definitely contributed toward the loss Bentley noted.

?It really hampered us from getting the win. If we?re not down 12 by the end of the first quarter, things might be a little different in the second quarter where we might have a little more momentum if there?s not such a gap.?

One part of the game that hurt the Demons was the lack of getting rebounds, Bentley said.

?That really hurt us tonight. It was more on the offensive end where you?re giving them second-chance points and I think they [Muscatine] ended up with 13 of those. That will be tough to beat any night.?

Even though both teams drew numerous fouls in the game, Washington was able to cash in on the free points.

?Our free-throw percentage was pretty good,? Bentley said. ?We shot over 80 percent,  which is a plus for us.

?We got to the foul line. With getting those shots, we really have to look at finishing them off and making them 3-point plays. It?s getting focused to finish shots off.?

The next time the girls play is Friday, Jan. 20, at home against Fairfield. What will the team be working on the next couple of days to prepare?

?We are going to learn from the pressure aspect. Fairfield will do the same. They will pressure us a lot.

?I think we got better in the game tonight as the pressure continued, but we have to start in that mindset. We can?t wait until the second quarter to get going.?

Bentley, like any other coach, is hoping for a different outcome Friday.

?You?re always hoping for that, but I can?t fault the girls? effort toward the end of the game. They worked their tails off.

?A lot of the girls played pretty much the whole second half. They worked really hard. It was just one of those things where we started slow and it caught up to us.?

The game against Fairfield begins at 6:15 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20, here in Washington, with the boys? game to follow.