By LAIEKE ABEBE

For the Daily News

GREENVILLE — After a crushing opening-round loss to Farmville Central in the Pitt County Holiday Tournament, the Washington girls basketball team came away with back-to-back wins, including finishing off the tournament last Friday with a 42-30 win over conference foe Ayden-Grifton in a consolation game.

Washington (4-6, 1-2 2A Eastern Carolina Conference) lost by 51 points to an undefeated Farmville Central squad to begin the holiday tournament. The Pam Pack could’ve mailed it in, but Washington bounced back in a major way, winning consecutive games for the first time this year. After winning a close game against tournament host J.H. Rose, Washington faced off against Ayden-Grifton (4-6, 2-0 2A ECC), who already defeated the Pam Pack earlier this season.

“I’m very proud of our team over these last few days,” Washington head coach Ralph Biggs said. “They fought so hard, and to win two games in this tournament is special. We battled for the last few days and this team deserves a lot of credit. Ayden-Grifton got us the first time, so it’s good to win against them even though this one doesn’t count towards conference play.”

After putting together a 13-9 lead over the Chargers after a quarter of play, Washington led the rest of the way. The Pam Pack looked all set to cruise to victory in the fourth quarter after taking a 10-point lead with 3:14 left in the game, but Ayden-Grifton wasn’t quite done.

The Chargers cut their deficit to five points late and had momentum, but Washington’s Cetavia Blackledge hit a huge 3-pointer to put Washington up by eight with less than a minute remaining to hold off a late comeback from the Chargers. From there, Washington iced the game at the free throw line.

Daria Jones, who had six points in the fourth quarter, and Raegan Ruther led the Pam Pack with 13 points each. Blackledge had five points, all in the fourth quarter. Jones’ strong performances in the tournament saw her named to the all-tournament team.

All of Washington’s wins this season have come when it holds its opponent to less than 40 points. Biggs was proud of his team’s effort, but he knows there is still work to be done. Playing three games in as many nights, he wanted to play as many of his players as he possibly could.

“This proves that we can hang with some of these teams,” Biggs said about the upcoming conference schedule. “We’re gonna enjoy this, but we can’t make any bad decisions over the next few weeks. I’m glad that the team can get a lot more rest after playing for three straight nights. I’m so proud of the way that we rebounded the basketball and made our free throws. Our decision making was excellent throughout the game and they weren’t able to comeback because of that.”

After taking time off for Christmas break, Washington will return to action on Jan. 7 with a home game against North Pitt.