Mule boys recover from early district loss

The Wahkiakum Mules boys basketball team punched their ticket to the State 2B tournament in Spokane for the first time since 2013 when they defeated Kittitas 58-43 in a regional game last Saturday at Mark Morris High School.

“Going in, I thought it was a tough match up for us,” Coach Todd Souvenir said of the Coyotes. “They have a guard that started on last year’s title team and scored 32 points against a very good Brewster team.

"They have another guard that scored 39 points in a game earlier in the year, and as a team, they’ve consistently put up 70 plus points. The guys really bought in to the defensive plan and held the two guards to 11 points each and we held them to 43 as a team. Offensively, it wasn’t our best game although we trusted each other and got great looks that just didn’t fall. We did crash the boards, pulling down 22 offensive rebounds, which led to 25 second chance points.

“I’m very proud and excited to have a front row seat watching a great group of kids have fun and success,” he added.

Jake Leitz led the Mules with 24 points and 19 rebounds. Logan LaBerge added 15 points and six rebounds. Brodie Avalon had seven points. Ashden Niemeyer had five points and nine rebounds. K.C. Beery scored four points and had eight boards. Brody Carlson had three points and five rebounds.

Kittitas 7 11 13 12 --43

Mules 15 13 17 13 --58

The Mules faced Lake Roosevelt in a loser out game on Wednesday in Spokane. The score was not available at press time.