The Washington girls basketball team took second for the second year in a row at the prestigious Bertha Frank Teague Mid-America Classic basketball tournament.

Washington had wins over Duncan (68-38) and Latta (67-39) before losing to Dale (52-44) in the finals.

Preslee Johnson led the Warriors in scoring against Duncan with 16 points.

Lonnie Parnacher joined her in double figures with 11 points.

Washington got out to an early 31-18 lead by halftime and closed the game strong, scoring 37 points in the second half.

But despite the early lead, Warrior head coach Kale Simon thought his team had room for improvement.

“We didn’t play great the first half of the first day,” he said.

Latta

The coach was pleased with his team’s play against Latta on Friday.

“We played really well against Latta,” Simon said.

Kelby Beller lead the Warriors in scoring with 20 points, followed by Johnson with nine.

Parnacher and Breanna Lindert each scored eight.

In total, 12 different Warriors scored in the game.

The Warriors led 38-16 at halftime and never looked back.

Dale

Washington found itself in a re-match with Class 2A’s No. 1 ranked Dale on Saturday.

Washington actually had a 24-23 lead at halftime despite troubles in the first quarter.

Simon credited Dale’s defense for his team’s struggles offensively.

“Give Dale credit,” he said. “We struggled on the offensive end and I’ll take full responsibility for that.”

After crawling back into the game, Washington was only able to score five points in the third quarter.

“I noticed in the quarters we struggled that when you do better defensively you also do better offensively,” he said. “And that went for both teams.”

Beller led the Warriors in scoring with 13 points, followed by Johnson with 11 and Briley Beller with 10.

The loss was Washington’s first of the season.

“After the game I told the team that it’s better we ran into adversity now than the last game of our season,” Simon said. “I asked ‘would you rather  have this loss now or at the end of the season?’ We needed to see a different defense like we did and this will help us going forward.”

Washington is 9-1 and ranked No. 1 in Class 3A.