By Mike Myers, Sports Writer
EVANSVILLE – The Washington Hatchets have a week to regroup before opening postseason play in Sectional 31 at the Hatchet House after a 56-44 loss at Evansville Memorial on Friday.
Class 3A No. 4 Washington (17-3) lost to a quality opponent on the road for the third in just over a month after a January loss at Princeton and a defeat earlier this month at Vincennes Lincoln. Against Evansville Memorial (12-8) the Hatchets never led and struggled to stay in the game throughout the contest.
Memorial sprinted out to a 20-6 lead after one quarter and still fronted 28-19 at the half. Washington was able to cut into the lead to six points at 40-34 early in the fourth quarter and had two chances to trim the Tigers’ lead even further. Instead, Memorial got two defensive stops and then went on a 9-2 run to take a 49-36 lead with 3:26 to play.
For Washington coach Gene Miiller, the reason his team fell to the Tigers was clear.
“They came out and shot the ball very well from the beginning (53 percent in the first half), they were very aggressive, and the most aggressive teams wins, which is usually the case,” said Miiller. “They were the more aggressive team right from the get go. They jumped on us early, and we could never get back in the basketball game.”
Michael Nesbitt and Alphonso Baity topped the Tigers with 12 points apiece. Cody Zeller reached his season averages on the night with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Sam Gines added 12 points, followed by six from Kurtis Anthony and four from Dylan Ervin. Ethan Hunsinger added two points for WHS.
Washington will face the winner of Tuesday’s Southridge-Vincennes contest on Friday at 6 p.m. in sectional action. For the Hatchets to win their sixth straight sectional title, Miiller’s team will have to play better than it did against Memorial.
“No doubt about it. We’ve just got to play better, that’s all it is. We’ve got to play better than we did tonight,” said Miiller. “I told the kids after the game the best thing we can do is just forget about this and get ready. We can’t stay focused on this ballgame very long, we’ve got to forget about it. Everybody, I guess, has a ballgame like this where they just don’t play very well. Hopefully this was ours for the year.”
Memorial won the JV game 38-35. Jaydan Hawk led WHS with nine points, followed by eight from Adam Lane.
