Washington girls basketball team falls short in semi-state
HUNTINGTON, Ind., ---Indiana high school girls basketball held their semi-state matchups Saturday – South bend Washington faced Lake Central in the 4A bracket with hopes of advancing to the State Championship, unfortunately the Panthers fell short.
The Washington Panthers haven’t loss since January 29th of 2022 and the expectation was for the number seven team in the country to make it back to the state championship.
That road was cut short by lake central in the first round of semi-state.
Panthers got the best of the Indians early in the regular season winning by 16 points and today was a chance at redemption for Lake Central.
Washington trailing at halftime, as they did in regionals – this time down 35-18 but they came out with intensity in the second half, making an 11-3 run on the back of Kira Reynolds.
But the panthers couldn’t find the pieces to keep the Indians down, as Vanessa Wimberly put an end to the run.
Later in the fourth – Indiana Miss Basketball candidate Rashunda Jones earned an and-1, to cut the lead to 5, followed by Reynolds, cutting the lead 57-54.
Unfortunately, it was not enough time on the clock.
Washington in the double-bonus and the Indians finishing the job at the charity stripe, 62-57 Lake Central and a sad day for the Washington panthers.
“Honestly, I kept thinking about is how well like central was playing. I mean, we played them early in the year obviously watched a lot of film, man, they deserve all the credit, man. I'm extremely proud of this group, you know, very young, obviously, unfortunately you know a Maya’s (Amiyah Reynolds) out. But you know, they man they lifted all out there,” said Head Coach Steve Reynolds.
“Just to know that it's come to the end with the team everything not just the season but everything with the team the practices the games everything is over,” Jones mentioned.
“It's a tough loss you know, after not losing all year that kind of thing and you know, huge win streak that kind of stuff. I just want them to know like listen at the end of the day like you guys had a great year,” Reynolds added.