Washington girls lose to Mid-Prairie

WELLMAN ? Baskets were hard to come by for the Washington Demon girls basketball team as they struggled against the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks, losing their contest 42-64.

Mid-Prairie would get on the board early with four points before Washington had a chance to score, but Mid-Prairie would control the scoring the rest of the first quarter as they would go ahead 24-12.

Washington started off the second quarter with a five-point run, but Mid-prairie would answer back by scoring 11 points straight . Washington worked on scoring, but found it difficult as they would trail 20-37 at the half.

Returning to the court after the break, the two teams would go back and forth in scoring, but Mid-Prairie would add to their lead by going up 49-29 at the end.

The scoring just wasn?t coming toward Washington as Mid-Prairie would put up another 15 points while giving up only 13 to Washington, giving the Golden Hawks the win.

Sarah Nacos led the team in scoring 17 points, which included four from the 3-point line.

Isabel Bailey had eight points, Brooke Stout scored six, Kira Ropp added five points, Taylor Dicks scored four and Morgan Brinning had two points.

Coach Jordan Bentley said of the game, ?I thought we did fairly well in the first four to five minutes. We ended up struggling on getting the defensive transition and with many turnovers back to back.

?We have to keep our heads up as we have a lot of work to do. We know we have some things to work on and continue to find the positive things we are doing.?

Some of the turnovers did fall toward Washington and Bentley likes to see that.

?We got some steals and turnovers but overall we were better, and definitely better than Monday night with the ball,? he says.

?We have some fundamental stuff that needs some work. We need to understand that it?s not where we want it to be this year and move forward.?

The girls face Mt. Pleasant Friday. What will be the focus the next couple of days?

?That focus is doing everything we can to prepare for them and get ourselves in the right mindset that it?s a new day and new game and nothing has happened now really matters.

?Every game we have a chance to win and that?s why you don?t just play the game on paper, you go out and compete, and the girls always do that.?

The girls game begins at 7:45 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, in the Washington High School gym.