Lady Mules at state: The coach's comments

Editor's note: We received these comments from Lady Mules Coach Tiffany Niemeyer too late to include with last week's report on the team's experience at the Class 2B state tournament. Here they are:

As a whole, the team did an outstanding job this year. Throughout the state tournament, we knew that we were going to be outsized. Our focus had to be on blocking out in order to overcome the height advantages we would be encountering. In the Colfax and Liberty Bell games, missed blockouts killed us. We gave up too many second chance points and we couldn't overcome this. In the Orcas game, we knew we had to key on their two big players. If we could control Shaw and Padbury we would be in control of the game and we did just that. We managed to put the game away in the fourth quarter where we outscored them 17 to 7.

In the Orcas game, outstanding play came from Halie Boyce (24 points), Briaeanna Olsen(15) and Jordyn Wirkkala (16). Also, Blaine Land, Shelby Felton (four steals) and Jordyn all pulled down eight boards a piece, and Evelyn Clark had five steals.

The Colfax game was a tough game from the start; they are a very disciplined and well rounded ball club. All 12 of their players played around 10 minutes a piece. Free throws, on our end, killed us. We missed 14 free throws the first half and we were down 17 at halftime. For the gamel, we were 8/26, hard to win a ball game with that many missed opportunities.

Again, great games by Halie (12) and Jordyn(16), and again Shelby Felton lead us in boards with eight, not bad considering Jordyn had to sit the majority of the first quarter due to foul trouble and Shelby is our smallest player.

Overall this was not a very "clean" game; there were 43 fouls called amongst both teams.

In the Liberty Bell game, the girls played till the finish; they left everything on the floor!! We went cold from behind the arc, only shooting 10 percent for the game (2/20). On a positive we shot 81percent from the line, a season record! It came down to the final minutes, and Halie hit a huge three-point shot to put us within points. We had some missed opportunities down the stretch, and they hit some clutch free throws to end the game (9/9 in the fourth quarter). Shelby again led the team in rebounds with 10, and Halie and Jordyn lead us in scoring (24 and 15).

Overall it was a great experience for the girls and a great finish for the seniors. Rebecka Patching and Blaine came in off the bench and gave us good solid minutes against the opponents' "big" girls. Evelyn played great defense and was consistent on the boards with averaging six rebounds and two steals throughout the tournament. Ashley Helms was a leader on the floor as she has been all year. She was a 100 percent from the free throw line for the tournament also. Brianna Helms, Ellee Crouse, Caitlin Nicolazzi, and Haylee Budd contributed from the bench whenever called upon. I think that this experience will drive them to want to get back there in the years to come.