Mule boys suffer a pair of losses

Any hopes of a perfect season were dashed this past week after the Mules dropped a pair of league games against division foes Morton/White Pass and Onalaska.

The Timberwolves jumped on the Mules early, taking a 16-7 lead after one quarter and never looking back enroute to a 70-44 pounding of the visiting Mules last Thursday night.

Shane Souvenir led the Mules in scoring with 12 points, followed by Eli McElroy with nine, Travis Wegdahl seven, Lars Blix six, Seth Doumit four, Gunnar Blix three, and Steven Doumit one. Lars Blix pulled in a team high seven rebounds and Travis Wegdahl dished out four assists.

Tuesday night’s battle with Onalaska was a much harder fought game on the Mules’ part, but a poor shooting performance from the free throw line (six for 14) as well as beyond the arc (four fpr 18) cost the Mules dearly in a 57-54 loss to the Loggers.

The Mules struggled out of the gate, falling behind 11-2 less than three minutes into the game but jumped back into it with a pair of three pointers from Lars Blix. The Loggers countered with a two-point buzzer-beater to take a 17-16 lead going into the second quarter. A sluggish second quarter saw the Mules fall from one behind to eight down at the break, as well as the loss of their head coach to a pair of technical fouls with 1:13 left in the half.

A strong second half effort saw the Mules outscore the Loggers 31-26; however, this wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit, and the Mules dropped their second straight game to fall to 3-2 on the season.

Souvenir notched a season-high 20 points in the loss with Lars Blix tacking on 15, McElroy 10 and Wegdahl nine. Blix and McElroy grabbed seven boards apiece and Blix added on five assists and five steals. McElroy also picked up three blocks.

The Mules look to get back on track in their next game at South Bend this Saturday.

The junior varsity squad split their matchups this week, taking down the Onalaska Loggers 57-42 on Tuesday and falling 41-32 at Morton White Pass last Thursday. Thorben Huber had a huge game against the Loggers with a game-high 25 points. Brandon Budd added eight, Joey Moore six, Gunnar Blix five, Jenton Zeng and Mitchel Dault four apiece, Brady LaBerge three and Zach Calvert two.

Dault led the Mules at Morton with nine points, followed by Budd and LaBerge with seven each, Blix four, Huber three and Zeng two.

Above, Travis Wegdahl weaves his way through the Onalaska defense for a layin. Below, Shane Souvenir goes up for two points in the Mules' loss to Onalaska on Tuesday. Photos by David McNally.