Lady Mules place 5th at state tournament

Photos by Todd Souvenir

The Wahkiakum Lady Mules basketball team finished the season with a fifth place trophy from the State 2B Tournament in Spokane last weekend, and Coach Rob Garrett couldn't be more proud.

"It was definitely a great year," Garrett said, "a lot of fun from beginning to end. The girls came into the season with a great work ethic. They wanted to be there every day and they wanted to get better. We lost quite a few seniors last year, so to have them not only go back to Spokane but bring home a trophy was an amazing accomplishment.

"It says a lot about the girls, the type of people they are and how hard they are willing to work to achieve a goal that they want. I was super proud of them this year and had a great time coaching them."

The Lady Mules began the tournament Thursday morning with an easy win. Unfortunately, the next two teams, one an old foe and the other an unknown challenge, were too much for the young Wahkiakum team.

Early Thursday morning, the girls took to the floor of the Spokane Arena to beat Colfax 58-44 in the first round of the tournament.

Peyton Souvenir led the team with 19 points, 10 steals and seven assists. Savannah Burdick scored 11 points. Macie Elliott added 10 points, six rebounds and four steals. Maddy Mace and Ellie Leitz had five points each. Sydney Hansen and Grace Peacock added four points apiece. Peacock also had six rebounds.

2 10 16 16 --44 Colfax

21 10 15 12 --58 Lady Mules

On Friday, the Lady Mules faced Napavine, a team that has been their nemesis all year long. The Lady Mules lost to the Tigers 31-45, 33-66, and 41-55 in their previous contests. Their state tournament match up was a similar struggle and the Lady Mules lost 28-58.

Souvenir led the team with seven points. Burdick scored six points. Mace and M. Elliott added four points each. Tyra Elliott had three points. Charlie Ashe and Rory Heywood scored two points apiece.

The team shot 21 percent from the floor and were 4 for 6 from the free throw line. Cold shooting and lack of rebounding may have hurt the team. Napavine pulled down 44 rebounds, while the Lady Mules only grabbed 26.

11 22 8 17 --58 Napavine

3 10 4 11 --28 Lady Mules

The loss moved the Lady Mules to the consolation bracket where they faced Mabton for third and fifth place on Saturday.

The Lady Mules led by as much as seven points but Mabton outscored Wahkiakum by 15 points in the fourth quarter to take the win, 43-55 and third place.

M. Elliott led scoring with 13 points. Souvenir had 11 points. Peacock added six points. Mace had five and Hansen added four more. T. Elliott and Burdick scored two points each.

The Lady Mules shot 32 percent from the floor and 55 percent from the free throw line.

"One of the cool things that happened in Spokane," Garrett began to say about their game against Napavine, "It wasn't a fun game but the cool part was when we were down by 30 or so and our subs got to go in and play. The girls on the bench didn't sit and complain about how we didn't have the best game, they were jumping off the bench and celebrating every time one of our girls did something good in the game. That just showed that they really care about each other and really want what is best for each girl on the team."

"That's a rare group," Garrett said. Coach Merz and I were super thankful and super proud of them this year."

He went on to thank the community.

"It's always nice to have an awesome community that stands behind you and supports you," Garrett said. "The girls are treated like princesses. We don't take that for granted. We are very thankful for everything that our community does for us, whether it's the people that come over and watch us or the people who can't make it but donate so the girls can have dinners paid for, sweatshirts, backpacks, airplane rides or limo rides. I can't say enough about the community we live in. We're very thankful and we love going out there and putting on the best show possible for them."