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Washington Evening Journal
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Washington’s season ends at Mediapolis
Bullettes pull away from Demons in 3A Region 1 opener
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MEDIAPOLIS — Washington girls basketball saw its season come to an end on Saturday night with a 58-38 loss to Mediapolis in the pairs Class 3A Region 1 opener.
It was the second meeting between the two teams this season. Through the first game back in December, the duo were separated by single digits for the majority of it, until Mediapolis pulled away in the fourth.
Saturday night’s matchup was much of the same before another late fourth quarter surge extended the Bullettes lead.
The Demons controlled early. After tying at 6-6 with over a minute to go in the opening period, Washington’s Kendall Hinrichsen dropped in a layup with 41 second left to give the Demons what would be an 8-6 lead after one.
Washington did well breaking the Mediapolis press throughout the game. Not many other teams throughout the season can say the same.
“Their a really good basketball team,” Washington head coach Shannon Rugg said. “I haven’t seen them take their press off of very many teams this year and we got them out of it in the first half.”
Washington continued to hit its mark in the first minute of the second. Adalyn Long and Reagan Miller buried back-to-back threes to give the Demons what was their largest lead of the night, 14-6.
But Mediapolis began to find its sweet spot no less than a minute later.
The Bullettes were dominant through the rest of the first half as 12 unanswered points culminated in a 19-3 run to the end of the quarter.
Washington was held to just one field goal following the hot start. At halftime, the Demons trailed 25-17.
To start the second half, Washington came as close as six on three separate occasions, with the final instance coming with 2.5 seconds on the clock. A driving Kendall Hinrichsen hit Reagan Miller in the corner for a three ball to make it 39-33 heading into the final quarter.
To the Demons’ dismay they couldn’t get it any closer. The two teams traded buckets to begin quarter, but that was Washington’s only field goal for nearly five minutes.
“There was around a four minute span where things just didn’t go our way,” Rugg said. “Hats off to Mediapolis, their a really good team.”
Seven straight points by the Bullettes made it an 48-35 game before Kendall Hinrichsen scored a pair with 2:09 left to make it an 11 point game.
The Demons scored just one more point the rest of the game, while Mediapolis carded 10 to seal it.
“I’m extremely proud of this group and the fight they showed tonight and obviously throughout the season,” Rugg said. “This group has worked extremely hard and they’ve stuck together. I think that comes back to our seniors Kendall, Lauren and Rachel. They led this group and I’m just proud of them. They busted their butt tonight and its been that way all year long.
With the loss, Washington finishes the season at 6-16 and 4-5 in the Southeast Conference, that was good enough for fourth in the league.
Washington says bye to three seniors in Kendall Hinrichsen, Lauren Hinrichsen and Rachel Sands.
