Mules clip Cardinals for win of the season

Though bookmarked by two losses, the Wahkiakum Mules boys basketball team got their first league win in front of a cheering home crowd on Friday, beating Winlock 61-52.

Ryan Quigley scored 20 points and pulled down five rebounds for the Mules. Joey Moore added 16 points and five more rebounds. Hank Ferguson had 10 points, eight rebounds and six steals. Zach Brown scored nine points, pulled down 13 rebounds and had six assists. Luke Brown had four points; James Anderson added two more.

13 9 13 17 52 --Winlock

15 18 12 16 61 --Mules

"I am very proud of them for how hard they played and how much energy they had for 32 minutes," Coach Todd Souvenir said. "They pushed the ball, moved without the ball, talked on defense and most importantly, they had fun for 32 minutes in front of a great crowd. We focused our defense of Nick Patching. He was guarded by a combination of Joey (Moore) and James (Anderson). They did a great job holding him to three points for the game while Ryan (Quigley) took care of Wyatt Dean who finished with 16. He scored 10 of those points in the fourth quarter. In our last meeting with Winlock we were out rebounded badly and got pushed around, so to out-rebound them 33 to 25 was a big reason we were able to get the win."

Two days earlier, the Mules exploded for 31 points in the fourth quarter to give Pe Ell a scare. They outscored the Trojans by 14 points in the second half, but it wasn't enough, and the Mules lost 73-64.

Z. Brown led scoring with 22 points. He also had eight rebounds and six assists. Quigley added 18 points and six rebounds. L. Brown and Moore had nine points apiece, with Moore contributing four assists as well. Ferguson scored four points and pulled down eight rebounds. Anderson had two points.

"We got off to a really slow start on the offensive end," Souvenir said. "We let it affect how we played on the defensive end. During the half, we talked about our effort on defense especially around rebounding and getting up the floor. We played much better in the second half but we dug ourselves a pretty big hole in the first half. We got within eight with 2:19 to go but couldn't get a break at the end."

20 21 11 20 --73 Pe Ell

6 13 14 31 --64 Mules

The team traveled to Mossyrock on Saturday and suffered a tough loss to a physical team, 77-46. Three of the Mules found themselves in foul trouble in the fourth quarter.

Moore led the team in scoring with 23 points. Z. Brown added 10 points. L. Brown had six points and Quigley scored five more. Ferguson scored two points and had seven rebounds.