Mule place 4th in state basketball

For the 14th time in school history, the Wahkiakum Mule boys basketball team has journeyed east to the “B” state basketball tournament and returned to Cathlamet with hardware in the bag.

The Mules earned their fourth 4th-place finish after going 2-1 this past weekend at the Spokane Arena, falling short against the Adna Pirates on Thursday night before turning around to knock off the Lake Roosevelt Raiders and the Dayton Bulldogs on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

The Mules struggled out of the gate against Adna, giving up four offensive rebounds to the Pirates on the first possession of the game and failing to score until a steal and a basket by John Chambers at the 5:44 mark. Over the next five minutes, the Mules went 1 for 5 from the field and were outscored 11-2 before Wyatt Parker ended the scoring drought with half a minute remaining in the period. Just before the first quarter came to an end, Lars Blix stole the ball from Adna’s Andrew Lawler and converted a basket to cut the Pirate lead to five (13-8) after one quarter.

Peter Weiler opened the second quarter with a spark for the Mules, knocking down a 3-pointer and putting back an offensive rebound to knot the game at 13. A short while later, Parker gave the Mules their first lead of the night with a put back off a Weiler miss, only to see the Pirates reclaim the lead 19-15 after the Mules went another two-plus minutes without a bucket. The Mules closed the quarter on a 9-4 run with Chambers and Parker hitting 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions to take a one point lead into half, 24-23.

The third period was a back-and-forth affair for the first five minutes with four lead changes and one tie, but Adna broke open a five point lead after the Mules went 3:15 between a Blix three and a Parker jumper.

With the Mules trailing 39-33 early in the 4th quarter, Adna post Garrett Driver connected on one of Adna’s four second half three-pointers to extend the Pirate lead back to a game-high of nine. The Mules managed to get back to within four points following a Chambers three-pointer and a pair of free throws from Eli McElroy.

With 4:28 remaining in the game, the Mules cut the Pirate lead down to two after Parker converted a three-point play the old fashioned way. Unfortunately, that was as close as the Mules ever got to taking down their Central League foes as the Mules were outscored 8-5 over the final four minutes of the game to fall 54-49.

Despite the Adna-Wahkiakum game being arguably the best game of the opening round, the game was marred by an incident with 0:45 remaining that left many fans throughout the arena even more frustrated with the officiating. At that point in the game, Adna’s 6’6” senior star Nate Trotter was going up for a lay in attempt when Wahkiakum’s Eli McElroy came in from behind him to try to block the shot. McElroy managed to block Trotter’s shot but his follow-through momentum carried him towards the baseline and his arm came down across Trotter’s wrist, sending Trotter crashing to the ground. The referee correctly whistled McElroy for the foul, but after a few seconds he crossed his arms and signaled that McElroy had committed an intentional foul, thus sending Coach Bill Olsen and the Mule fans into a frenzy.

The hoopla and the frustration didn’t end there though. As Olsen and the referee were discussing the call, the thirty-second clock was ticking away for a substitution to be made as the foul was McElroy’s fifth of the game. As the horn sounded the same referee whistled the Mule bench for a technical foul for failing to sub in a new player in the time allotted, and the Pirates were awarded two more free throws. The apparent problem was that in all the distraction regarding the intentional call, the referee forgot to alert Coach Olsen that McElroy had fouled out, and thus Olsen had no idea that McElroy had fouled out until mere seconds before the horn sounded, not long enough for Brett Chaput to check in as he was still a step short of the scorer’s table when the horn blew.

With the loss to the Pirates, the Mules landed in the consolation bracket and faced a loser-out matchup with the Lake Roosevelt Raiders.

The Raiders, led by 6’8” NCAA Division I commit Ty Egbert and considered to be one of the top three teams in the state along with the eventual champions Colfax Bulldogs and runner-up Northwest Christian (Colbert) Crusaders, were still reeling from an 18-point thrashing the previous night at the hands of the Crusaders.

That didn’t faze the Mules one bit as they jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on a Blix three-pointer thirty seconds into the game. The Mules and Raiders traded baskets for the next six minutes before Lake Roosevelt briefly tied the game at 14 with 1:27 left in the quarter.

Egbert accounted for eight of the Raider’s 14 first quarter points as the Raiders clearly made it their precedent that they would go inside to him early and often after the Crusaders held him to just 16 points, well below his season average of 23 per game.

Much like against the Pirates, the second quarter once again belonged to the Mules. After back-to-back Lake Roosevelt buckets gave them their first lead of the game at the 4:26 mark, Blix nailed a three to retake the lead, followed by a pair of baskets by Parker. After falling behind 23-21, the Mules ended the half on a 14-3 run to go into the break leading 35-26.

The third quarter was even as both teams put up 13 points in the quarter; however, the Raiders managed to cut the Mules lead down to three with 3:45 to go. After a pair of free throws and a three-pointer from Chambers, the Mule lead was back up to a more comfortable eight points with 1:30 left. The Mules and Raiders traded a Weiler three-pointer for a two-point bucket to close the third quarter with a 48-39 lead.

The fourth quarter began well enough for the Mules as they maintained a seven point lead two minutes into the decisive quarter.

However, the Raiders fought their way back into the game. At the 2:11 mark, Lake Roosevelt’s Lee Williams scored a basket to put the Raiders up 56-55, and after three and a half quarters of controlling the game, suddenly the Mules’ season was on the ropes.

The Mules were desperately seeking a big shot to prolong their season when Blix converted a three-pointer from the top of the key with 1:14 left to regain the lead. After Egbert went 1 for 2 from the free throw line, Weiler scored a basket with 0:29 seconds remaining to push the Mule lead back to three. Over the next 15 seconds, Weiler converted 5 of 7 free throw attempts to secure the Mules’ 65-60 victory and keep the trophy streak alive.

Although the Mules picked up the big win, they also suffered a big loss in the game. Eli McElroy, barely two weeks back from being knocked out of a game in early January with a concussion, received an elbow to the head just beneath his protective helmet with three minutes to go in the game, effectively ending his season after being diagnosed with a Level 1 concussion.

Day three featured the Mules up against another team considered to be one of the best teams from the eastside, the Dayton Bulldogs, owners of a 19-1 regular season record.

This matchup was one that was supposed to happen back in late December when the Mules travelled to Dayton for their Christmas tourney. As the two best teams in the tournament, the Mules and Bulldogs were supposed to meet in the championship game of that tournament, but the Mules failed to hold up their end of the deal, losing to “1B” LaCrosse-Washtucna on the first day. Fast forward two months, and the two teams finally got to face each other, only this time at the state tournament for 4th and 6th places.

As much as Dayton’s Coach Ramirez was anticipating the matchup with his good friend, Coach Olsen, that excitement died for the Bulldogs almost immediately after the tip off. A few seconds into the game, the Mules jumped out to a three point lead on a Chambers three-pointer from the right wing. Two and a half minutes into the game the Mules were up 7-2 and the Bulldogs seemed outmatched.

A three-pointer, a turnover, and another field goal and suddenly the game was tied, 7-7, less than a minute later. That turned out to be as close as the Bulldogs would ever get to a lead in the game. From there on out it was all Wahkiakum, closing the first quarter on a 12-1 run, capped off by a Parker three-pointer with 0:05 on the clock.

In the second quarter, the Mules maintained their lead throughout, extending as high as 15 and falling as low as seven before going into the break with a 29-18 advantage.

Although the third quarter went much like the first two, with the Mules building on their 11 point lead to take their biggest lead yet at 18, that was hardly the highlight of the quarter.

At the 4:02 mark in the quarter, both coaches shocked the arena when they cleared the benches and substituted in the kids that don’t get to play as much or weren’t playing much at state, namely those who primarily played at the JV level during the regular season.

Apparently, Coaches Olsen and Ramirez had, unbeknownst to others, come to an agreement prior to the game that midway through the third quarter both coaches would do the substitution, no matter the score or situation, letting the kids play until two minutes into the fourth quarter.

While Coach Ramirez cut that a bit short, sending his starters back in at the 7:24 mark of the fourth quarter, triggering Coach Olsen to do the same, the move by both coaches was clearly the classiest move of the tournament.

In those five minutes of play, the Bulldogs hit back-to-back field goals to cut a 15 point lead back down to 11, before Chris Bilgic scored buckets on consecutive possessions and Shane Souvenir added a runner in the lane to reach the 18 point lead after three.

Fifteen seconds into the final quarter of the season, Seth Doumit drained a three pointer from the left corner to give the Mules their largest lead of the game, 45-24. Doumit’s three prompted Ramirez to send his starters back into the game in hopes of getting the final score a little closer.

However, over the next seven minutes the Bulldogs never got any closer than 15 with 1:35 remaining and the Mules went on to handily beat Dayton 57-41.

Three Mules managed to crack the Top 12 in scoring at the tournament, with Chambers totaling 35 points for 12th, Weiler 36 points for 11th, and Parker 51 points, good enough for 3rd best. Parker also finished 9th in rebounds with 19, Chaput 13th with 14 boards, and Blix grabbed 20 to notch 6th best. Chambers also finished with 13 assists, second only to Colfax’s MVP Brandon Gfeller (14).