Washington girls lose to Panthers Friday

Whenever the two teams of Washington and Mt. Pleasant are on the basketball court together, fans from both teams never know how the games will end, and that was the case Friday, Feb. 10, when the Mt. Pleasant girls traveled to Washington to play in the last regular-season home game for both teams.

Mt. Pleasant would get on the board first with a 3-pointer, but Washington would come back by scoring eight in a row. The two teams would take the ball up and down the court the rest of the quarter which would end 15-7 with Washington ahead.

Two straight 3s at the start of the second quarter put Mt. Pleasant behind by just two, but Washington would rally and pull ahead.

Despite the Panthers scoring an additional four, the score heading into the locker rooms would show the Demons up 21-17.

After the break, the Panthers would hold their host team's scoring back to only six points while putting up nine of their own to trail by just one.

It was in the fourth quarter where Mt. Pleasant fans who traveled to follow the team wouldn't be disappointed as the Panthers would have a strong showing scoring 23 points and only allowing Washington to add 10 to get the win.

Washington girls coach Jordan Bentley said of the game, ?It was one of the better games we played in a while and I thought we were doing some good things.

?I think fatigue sets in a little bit because we had to leave some players out there because they hit some shots.

?We needed to have our best offensive effort on the floor. We broke down mentally, but I was happy in how we played.?

Part of the reason for Washington's lead in the first half was because of 14 Mt. Pleasant turnovers. Bentley was pleased with that.

?Usually it's the other way around for us,? he said. ?Tonight we only had five in the first half. We forced Mt. Pleasant into making some mistakes and it paid off for us.

?The other thing is the shooting. We got in some really good shots. We had 30 shots at half time and ended the game with 57, which is one of our higher shot totals. More shots equal less turnovers, so we are doing some things right.?

Coming up Wednesday, Feb. 15, the girls will face the Panthers again, this time in the post season and at Mt. Pleasant. Bentley is confident about the game.

?I like our chances. You know the old adage ?it's hard to beat a team three times,? so I like what we did tonight.

?We did a lot of really good things. We will continue to improve, get shots up, build confidence in ourselves and move forward.?

Friday's loss puts the Demons at 5-16. The same two teams will face each other Wednesday, Feb. 15, in the first round of the post season in Mt. Pleasant. The game begins at 7 p.m.