Mules boys set to wind up season

Three losses last week took the Wahkiakum Mules boys basketball team out of their final bid for post season play this year. Scores and stats are informative and interesting, but numbers aren't always an adequate way to show how much a team or its individuals have grown. Something shifted after the Christmas break and though numbers fail to show it, the boys started to fight and in those moments, they began to shine.

Last Wednesday, the team traveled to Morton/White Pass and took a big hit, losing Joey Moore, and losing the game 34-83.

Moore, who went out of the Mossyrock game the week before with a cut below his right eye, got a huge shiner when a Timberwolf plugged him with an elbow to his left eye. The injury sidelined Moore, an integral member and emotional leader for the Mule team for the next two games.

"They are a very well balanced team," Coach Todd Souvenir said of MWP. "We had a decent start offensively, but defensively we had a hard time stopping them. They are the number one team in the state for a reason. It was a good experience for some of the kids to see the potential and what you can do with some good work. It was a tough loss and the kids worked hard from start to finish."

Brandon Budd scored 26 points, pulled down nine rebounds, had two assists and one steal. Zach Brown scored four points and had two rebounds. Ryan Quigley had two points, one rebound and three assists. Casey Wilson added two points. Moore had one assist and one steal before he was taken out of the game. Hank Ferguson had four rebounds and one assist.

Mules 9 8 10 7 --34

Timberwolves 31 22 15 15 --83

On Friday, the Mules faced a physical Napavine team at home and lost 48-66.

Brown led scoring with 23 points. He also had seven rebounds, two assists and five steals. Budd had 19 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and one steal. Hank Ferguson added six points, five rebounds and one steal. Quigley had four rebounds and one steal. Cody Terpsma had two rebounds and one assist and Andrew Hou pulled down three rebounds.

"They worked from start to finish," Coach Souvenir said, "and we've talked about regardless of the score playing with passion and intensity and they've definitely done that in the last four or five games. Tonight was probably the best of all of them. We rebounded much better. Missing Joey hurts, but Zach stepped up. Andrew, our foreign exchange student-he played great. Hank stepped up and he's been playing really well defensively. He's really picked it up on the defensive end and gotten more aggressive."

The Mules shot 47 percent from the free three line and were 27 percent from the field. They were called for 11 fouls in the first quarter, while the Tigers were only called for five. Two Mules eventually fouled out. The referees were busy, ultimately calling the Mules for 29 fouls and the Tigers for 20.

"There were inconsistencies on both sides," Souvenir said about the calls. "The biggest thing was Wyatt Stanley. He's big and long and tough. He's a 6'4, 245 pound guy that's got some skills on the court. He's got a nose for the ball and he's tough to keep off boards. He shot 25 free throws tonight. It's because he's so aggressive and so good inside. He's hard to keep out. He was really the factor. Our goal was to keep Doughty, who scored over 20 points the last time we met, to under 10 points. We kept him to two. We did our job, but Wyatt was too big and beefy to control for 32 minutes."

Tigers 14 20 16 16 --66

Mules 7 21 15 5 --48

On Saturday the team traveled to Onalaska and lost 21-66. Onalaska had some hot shooting from outside the three point line. One Logger was six for 10 and another shot five for six.

"Onalaska came to play," Souvenir said. "They were unconscious from behind the arc as they started the game five for five and Neilson had his first six of the game. Being short handed definitely hurt but I'm not sure I've seen a team shoot that well from behind the arc in the seven years I've been a coach."

Brown finished with 10 points, four rebounds and two steals. Budd had five points, two rebounds and one steal. Ferguson had three points, two rebounds, one assist and three steals. Quigley scored two points and had one steal. Wilson had one point and two rebounds. Terpsma pulled down two rebounds and Hou had one.

The Mules shot 64 percent from the free throw line. Unlike their competition, they were unable to connect a single three point shot.

Mules 4 6 7 4 --21

Loggers 24 17 16 9 --66

The Mules finish their season this week with Senior Night at home against Toledo yesterday (Wednesday) and their final game at Toutle Lake on Friday.

Senior boys are Brandon Budd and Kael McKinley.