Mule girls burn LaConner, headed east of mountains

It was back and forth till the end, but the Lady Mules' perseverance and defense earned them the 62-50 win against LaConner on Dec. 18.

"It was a huge win for us tonight," Coach Rob Garrett said. "It was great to see Emmie (Niemela) get us started with the scoring. I think she had our first seven points tonight. From there, Paige (Mace) took the reins and used her ball handling to get to the basket as well as get her teammates great looks. Collectively, we played pretty good defense tonight and down the stretch we blocked out really well, allowing Jansi (Merz) and Emmie to crash the boards. In the second half, both Jansi and Courtney (Carlson) stepped up huge, knocking down three threes apiece. Great timing and great confidence. It was fun to see the girls all step up and work their hardest for each other to reach one common goal. Another great step in the right direction. LaConner should be one of the top three teams in the state so hopefully this provided our girls some much needed confidence and we plan to just keep building it from here."

Merz and Paige Mace led the team with 17 points apiece. Courtney Carlson added 13. Emerald Niemela had nine. Alexzandria Watkins scored four and Reigha Niemeyer had two.

LaConner 19 9 14 8 --50

Lady Mules 13 11 21 17 --62

The Lady Mules travel to the east side for the Colton Tourney on Friday and Saturday and begin regular play after the Christmas Break on January 2 at Rainier.