The Washington Lady Lion seventh grade basketball team recently completed the 2015-16 season with a tournament championship of SCOL schools.
The Lady Lions were a No. 5 seed entering the junior high tournament held at Hillsboro.
The pathway to victory started out with a 55-23 win over No. 8 seed East Clinton on Feb. 6.
The tournament was then pushed back 10 days due to inclement weather.
This created a challenge for the team as they would have to play three consecutive nights against higher-ranked teams.
The Lady Lions accepted the challenge and prevailed with wins over No. 4 Clinton-Massie in the quarterfinals (30-15), No. 1 Greenfield in the semifinals (25-23), and No. 2 Chillicothe in the championship game (30-29).
The young Lady Lions 2015-16 basketball team started off their season at 2-0 then dropped four straight games.
They went on to win six of their last eight regular season league games leaving them a record of 8-6. With the tournament wins included, the team won 10 of their last 12 games to finish the season 12-6 overall.
This is the third consecutive year the Lady Lions seventh grade team has reached the tournament finals, capturing the title in 2014 and 2016.
They were runner-up in 2015, losing by only four points.
Coach Todd Wallace attributes much of this success to the fundamentals his teams learn in the Little Lady Lions youth program.
