It was a seesaw battle with Coastal Conference rival Jacksonville, but in the end the Washington girls’ basketball team was the one left riding high as the Pam Pack edged out the Cardinals 40-37 on Monday.
With 1:10 left in the game Jacksonville evened up the score at 35 after Alexis Herd buried a three-pointer that swung the momentum in the Cards’ favor. However, Shona Midgette converted two big free throws that were followed up by a Kiara Smith fastbreak layup and an Eva Mackey free throw to help the Pam Pack snap a three-game losing streak and deal the Cards another conference loss.
“We’ve been in a bit of a drought the last few games and it’s nice to get a win,” Washington coach Allison Jones said.
The Pam Pack got another strong performance from junior guard Sheema Blount who racked up a game-high 17 points, while Shona Midgette tallied 10 and Smith scored eight.
The Pam Pack fell behind 9-7 in the first but was able to press and halfcourt trap its way ahead of Jacksonville, outscoring the Cardinals 10-6 in the second quarter to go into halftime up 17-15.
“Our best chance to win is when we hold teams to low-to-mid-40s or under and we were able to do that tonight, ” Jones said. “It’s been a while since we pulled out that halfcourt press. We’ve used it sparingly, but we’ve done it really well in practice the last few days so we used it a little bit more tonight.”
After three quarters of play Washington trailed 25-24 but surpassed the Cards early in the fourth when a Midgette layup gave the Pack a 26-25 advantage.
A pair of Midgette free throws extended that lead to 35-32 with a little over a minute left in the game, but Jacksonville was able to tie it up on a Herd three.
Once again, Midgette got it done at the line as she calmly buried her two attempts to reclaim the lead.
Washington would go on to outscore Jacksonville 5-2 in the final 50 seconds of the game to shed its three-game skid and improve its conference record to 3-5.

Jacksonville    9    6    10    13    —    37
Washington    7    10    7    16    —    40
Cardinals (37)
Alexis Herd 10, Lyssa Wallace-O’Neal 16, Felton 2, Berry 2, Clement 2, Slott 5.
Pam Pack (40)
Sheema Blount 17, Smith 8, Midgette 10, Walker 2, Mackey 1, Boston 2.