Grizzlies corral Mules in regionals

The Wahkiakum Lady Mule basketball team ended their season in Bothell on Saturday when they lost to the third ranked Bear Creek Grizzlies, 51-48.

Off to a slow start, the Lady Mules were behind by 11 in the first eight minutes. By half time score was 16-24.

In the middle of the third quarter, the light came on. Behind by as many as 12 points during the game, the Lady Mules put on a show and proved that they can play with anyone. And coming within three points at the end, they gave the Grizzlies a scare.

“I was super proud of the girls,” Coach Garrett said. “They didn’t give up and they didn’t let down. They made a great comeback and they worked their butts off on defense to get stops. They came down and pushed it offensively. We were getting offensive rebounds and giving ourselves second chances. Basically doing everything we weren’t doing in the first half, which was awesome to see.”

Tori Wegdahl had a double double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. She also had four assists and two steals. Sam Boyce scored 16 points. She had seven rebounds, two assists and one steal. Baylee Olsen added nine, had seven rebounds, one assist, two steals and three blocks. Kaylee Bryant had four points, nine rebounds, three assists and one block. Petyon Souvenir scored three points and one steal. Maya Stanley had four rebounds, five assists and one steal. And Tyra Elliott pulled down one rebound.

The 6’2” Catherine Fernandez led the Bear Creek Grizzlies with 23 points and 25 rebounds. Standout Kristina Englestone finished her season early when she tore her ACL in district play.

This was senior Maya Stanley’s last year.

“After the game I told Maya that she worked her butt off and played the best defense she’d played all season,” Garrett said. “She also had five assists. When she looks back she will have nothing to regret. You’ve got to be excited about that.

“I think we were pretty nervous going into the game,” Garrett said, “into the setting. I thought we did a good job defensively. It wasn’t our defense that was the problem; it was our rebounding. And on top of that, they got pretty lucky and hit a lot of ridiculous shots, which was unfortunate for us.”

There were also some questionable calls by the referees that worked in Bear Creek’s favor.

“It’s extremely frustrating to have the kids work that hard and have adults take that away,” Garrett said.

“We had our opportunities,” Garrett said. “We missed four free throws down the stretch, we did not have a good shooting night from outside. There were a ton of things we could have done differently. If we had done what we needed to do, we would have been able to win the game. Those things are frustrating but at the same time the chances were still there. We unfortunately did not get it done. It’s bittersweet. It was fun to watch, to see that heart. You want to capitalize and finish it. But from a learning standpoint, I was proud of them.”

As for next year, there may be as many as eight seniors returning.

“It’s going to be a battle for spots on varsity next year,” Garrett said. “The off season time is so big. As another coach said recently, ‘basketball players are not made from November to March, they are made from March to November.'”