The Washington boys basketball team appears to be getting hot a the right time as it blew past White Oak 65-35 on Tuesday to win its second straight contest and grow closer to the coveted fourth place spot in the Coastal Conference standings.
Washington (6-10, 4-7) put forth a stellar defensive effort on Tuesday and is hoping that trend continues as it looks to lock up a fourth-place finish or better so the team can clinch a guaranteed spot in the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs.
“The bottom line is we have to win and this win helps us get to where we want to go,” Washington coach Steve Flowers said. “We figured we have to win at least three out of the last four games and there was one.”
The Pam Pack got off to fast start against the Vikings (4-16, 0-10) as it raced out to a 14-4 lead at the end of the first quarter and held a 34-14 advantage at halftime.
Washington’s Jimmy Williams led all scorers with 16 points while Stevie Green added 10 and Jamal Moore had nine.
The Vikings were led by Kendall White who scored eight points.
Washington had 10 players score points but it was the team effort on defense that carried it to a win as the Pam Pack pestered the Vikings’ passing lanes and did a nice job contesting shots.
“This was our best game of the year by far,” Flowers said. “We’ve known all year long that defense is how we’re going to win. We must play defense and they have been doing it the last three games.”
The Pam Pack will be back in action on Friday when it hosts D.H. Conley on Senior Night.

White Oak 47, Washington 31
The Pam Pack nearly overcame an 11-point first-quarter deficit but went scoreless in the final four minutes of the game against White Oak to fall 47-31.
After trailing 14-3 at the end of the first quarter Washington (2-16, 2-9) outscored the Vikings 19-18 over the middle quarters and put together a 9-4 run to cut the deficit to 36-31 after a Amari Heggie layup with 4:08 left in the game.
Unfortunately for the Pam Pack momentum swung the other way as White Oak ripped off an 11-0 run to close out the game.
“We were just slow coming out of the gate and we can’t dig holes like that for ourselves,” Washington coach Allison Jones said.
Lyric Smith led White Oak with 11 points while Emily McLain hit a few key jumpers to tally 10.
The Pam Pack fielded a starting five that consists of two freshmen, a sophomore, a junior and one senior and for now that group will have to continue to endure its growing pains.
Washington was led by freshman forward Shona Midgette who scored 15 of the Pack’s 31 points.
“Shona Midgette had a great game,” Jones said. “She really battled in the paint and I was proud of her.”
In JV action the Pam Pack girls won 32-11 as Kelsey Lang tallied eight points and Taijae Latham scored six to up Washington’s record to 13-3 (8-3).

Girls game
White Oak    14    10    8    15    –    47
Washington    3    9    10    9    –    31

Vikings (47)
Lyric Smith 11, Black 4, Emily McLain 10, Bailey 3, Tineisha Smith 10, Miller 2.
Pam Pack (31)
Shona Midgette 15, Blount 8, Heggie 6, Smith 2.

Boys game
White Oak    4    10    13    8    –    35
Washington    14    20    11    20    –    65
Vikings (35)
Barton 4, Defiato 1, White 8, Pennington 2, White 5, Dervoin 6, Copeland 4, Norvell 2.
Pam Pack (65)
Graham 5, Brunson 6, Jimmy Williams 16, Bell 7, Stevie Green 10, Moore 4, J. Moore 9, Austin 3, Tate 3, D. Moore 2.