Washington girls looking to start second half strong

It?s become a trend for the Washington girls? basketball team, but they can?t explain it.

More than 60 percent of the Demons? points this season have come in the second half, and senior forward Addie Pacha isn?t sure what to attribute that to.

However, she knows the team needs to figure out how to bring that production to the first half of their games moving forward.

?I think right now we are a second-half team,? Pacha said. ?It takes some time to wake up and I think that?s one of our bigger (focuses) coming out of Christmas break. We really have to come out in the first quarter and give it our all.?

The Demons stand at 2-5 on the year, and under first-year head coach Jordan Bentley, they feel that slowly, but surely, they are gaining the confidence they need for a big push in the next part of the season.

?I think we are still adjusting, but we are getting the hang of it,? senior Morgan Kimball said. ?We are playing the offense and playing with each other more. We are learning.?

Pacha leads the team in scoring at the winter break, averaging 9.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, while Kimball has 7.2 points and 1.8 assists per game.

Both girls have high hopes heading into the rest of the season, as three of their losses came to teams currently ranked in the Top 10 in Class 4A, and another came by four points on the road against a senior-laden Solon team.

?There are some positives (from the losses), but for me the close loss always stings,? Pacha said. ?There?s always that thought that we could have worked just a little bit harder or if that one possession would have picked up points, we could have won. That?s a push for us. We know it?s there. We know we can attain the win.?

To help them out in the tough losses, Kimball said the big key will be making the free throws.

As a team, the Demons are shooting 54 percent from the line this season, and in their losses, shot a combined 30-for-55 (54 percent) from the charity stripe.

?A lot is our free throws,? Kimball said. ?I focus on mine especially. We?ve been working on that a lot in practice and out of practice too. That should help us win more games. We are working on getting in shape more.?

As the Demons move forward with their season on Saturday, they are looking to a strong second portion of the season to propel them into the postseason on a hot streak.

?Our goal is to have a winning season,? Kimball said. ?We need to start out by going 5-5, which we think we can do, then create a winning season. We want to knock off some good teams.?

The quest for a winning season starts on Saturday against Burlington at home.