The Washington Blue Lions had a very good start to their game against Wilmington Monday night at Washington High School.
The Blue Lions jumped out to a 10-0 lead.
Wilmington then began to find their shooting touch and went on a 19-0 run.
On the night, Wilmington connected on 12 three-point field goals en route to a 74-53 victory over the Blue Lions.
The game’s high scorer was Washington sophomore Tanner Lemaster, pouring in 29 points. He hit five of Washington’s eight three-point field goals.
Wilmington had four players reach double figures in scoring, led by senior Brandon Glass who sank six three-point baskets for a team-high 18 points.
Senior Matthew Butcher hit two threes and scored a total of 15 points.
Senior Brady Vilvens had 11 points, including three dunks and sophomore Luke Blessing hit three treys on his way to scoring 11 points.
“That was as quick a shift in the game that I’ve ever been involved in,” Washington head coach Shannon Bartruff said. “We should have been up 16-2. We had two selfish plays in a row where we’re trying to make ‘look-at-me’ plays and get dunks and we miss them both.
“We gave them life and let them right back in the game just by not converting,” Bartruff said. “I felt like our energy was great early; we were sitting down and guarding. They shoot the ball extremely well from three and they take a lot of threes. They have a significant size advantage on us. I felt like we were scrapping. We got deflections and steals early.
“I really felt like this team was making some good progress,” Bartruff said. “We played a good Vinton County team at Vinton County (Saturday). We had a three-point lead with two and a half minutes to go in that game and we lost a tough one. I felt like this team was starting to come together and I feel like we took two or three steps back tonight. We’ve got a long way to go.”
The Blue Lions held a 10-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Wilmington’s first basket was a dunk shot.
Both before and after that, Washington had breakaway chances at the basket. Two different Blue Lion players attempted dunks, but they were no good.
Wilmington made 9 of 14 field goal attempts in the second quarter, including four threes and 8 of 8 shots from the foul line, scoring 30 points, while limiting the Blue Lions to 10 for a 37-20 halftime lead.
Wilmington made six more threes in the third quarter, hitting 9 of 17 field goal attempts to add 24 more points.
The Blue Lions had four threes in the third quarter, including one from sophomore Traeton Johnson, who finished with nine points and one from sophomore Titus Lotz, who ended the game with three points.
It was 61-36 at the end of three quarters of play.
The Blue Lions scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to 13 for Wilmington to set the final at 74-53.
The Blue Lions (0-8 overall) are at Chillicothe for a Frontier Athletic Conference game Friday night.
Wilmington improves to 5-7 on the season.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Wil. 7 30 24 13 — 74
WCH 10 10 16 17 — 53
WILMINGTON — Matthew Butcher 2 (2)-5-15; Zane Miller 1-0-2; Brandon Glass 0 (6)-0-18; Kendal France 2-0-4; Kellen Baltazar 1-3-5; Brady Vilvens 5-1-11; Mikey Brown 0-0-0; Cole Bernhardt 0-0-0; Collin Barker 2 (1)-1-8; Avery Warix 0-0-0; Luke Blessing 1 (3)-0-11; Shane Griffith 0-0-0; Alex Lazic 0-0-0; Gabe Reeder 0-0-0. TOTALS — 14 (12)-10-74. Free throw shooting: 10 of 12 for 83 percent. Three-point field goals: Glass, 6; Blessing 3; Butcher, 2; Barker. Field goal shooting: 26 of 58 for 45 percent. Turnovers: 16.
WASHINGTON — Brice Cartwright 0-0-0; Karson Runk 1-0-2; Micai Claggett 2-1-5; Titus Lotz 0 (1)-0-3; Raleigh Haithcock 0 (1)-2-5; Trateon Johnson 2 (1)-2-9; Tanner Lemaster 5 (5)-4-29. TOTALS — 10 (8)-9-53. Free throw shooting: 9 of 19 for 47 percent. Three-point field goals: Lemaster, 5; T. Lotz, Johnson. Field goal shooting: 18 of 55 for 33 percent. Turnovers: 11.
