Cards upset Mules at District

Seniors Peter Weiler and Lars Blix combined for 39 of the Mules’ 52 points last Thursday night, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the upset minded Winlock Cardinals in the opening round of district play, with the Mules falling 57-52.

The third-seeded Mules and seventh-seeded Cardinals were neck and neck throughout much of the game, with neither team able to break open a commanding lead.

In the decisive fourth quarter, the Mules were clinging to a narrow four point lead when an unfortunate call turned the tide of the game. After a Winlock foul, Mule Shane Souvenir was standing under the Winlock basket with a Cardinal player wrapped around his legs. As Souvenir pulled his legs out of the grasp of the Winlock player, the referee next to him turned around just in time to see Souvenir’s legs coming away from the Winlock player, and, thinking that Souvenir had just kicked the player, whistled him for a technical foul.

From that point on Winlock controlled the flow of the game and the Mules were never able to recover.

The loss pushed the Mules into the consolation bracket where they faced off last night (Wednesday) against the top seed from the Pacific League, Raymond, who comes in after a double-digit loss to Adna last Saturday.