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Despite being down five rotation players on Saturday night, the Pam Pack made a valiant effort in the team’s 70-61 loss to Washington County in the Panthers’ holiday tournament Saturday evening.

Washington defeated Pasquotank in the first round of the holiday tournament by stomping on the accelerator in the second half. They led 40-36 at halftime, then went on to win, 88-53, Friday night. Rashod Smith dropped a game-high 30 points, while Omarion Blount (27), Messiah Ebron (18) and Jaden Hambric (8) all had decent nights as well.

Saturday evening, Hambric, Jamauri and Jeremee Bryant, Reese Gaskins and Antwone Godley were all ruled out of the championship contest.

The length and athleticism of the Panthers forced the Pam Pack into some tough shots, but Washington would never go down quietly. Washington ended the half on a little 5-0 run, and only trailed 28-25 at the break.

A big start to the third quarter for the Panthers created some separation, and the Pam Pack couldn’t quite recover from it. They continued to battle until the final whistle, but it wasn’t enough.

“I thought we got off to a real slow start, and we’ve done that pretty much every game except for our first game against Conley,” head coach David Allewalt said after the game. “When you don’t start well, you have to exert so much energy to get back into games. I have 10 guys, but there’s a lot of inexperience there; everybody’s got to get a feel. We have too good of athletes to be playing the way we are right now. With a healthy Jaden, Jamauri and Reese, yeah, we probably win this game tonight. We’ve had a real tough schedule, had a couple slip away that we should’ve won, but I’d give us a B-minus. I think we’re a state playoff team, I do, but my expectations for this team are high. I don’t want to just make the tournament — I want to win some games.”

Smith scored more than 30 points for the second-consecutive contest with 32, Blount picked up 17, Kash Godley had nine and Terry Moore had three in his first game back.

The first half of the Pam Pack’s basketball season comes to a close, and Washington (6-4, 1-1) will trot back onto the hardwood Jan. 3 at home against Ayden-Grifton (3-4, 0-1), for its third conference contest of the season.