Fishermen knock Mules out of tourney

The Wahiakum Mules boys basketball season ended when they lost to Ilwaco in a loser out district game last Wednesday, 71-47.

“Ilwaco posed a lot of challenges for us. They can score from all five spots and they have a couple guys who come off the bench and do good things,” Coach Todd Souvenir said. “We knew we’d have to be up to the task, and that we would have to play man to man against them. I thought we did a pretty good for the most part on defense, but it wasn’t the night we needed offensively, unfortunately. They limited Brodie [Avalon] and held him to three points. At the same time, it gave Zakk [Carlson} and Jacob opportunities. Dom did some good things as well. We just couldn’t muster up enough offensively to stay in the game.”

The Mules cut the lead to eight points early in the fourth quarter, but Ilwaco hit a three, got a steal and another bucket, and the lead grew again.

Zakk Carlson scored 20 points. Dominic Curl added eight points and six rebounds. Titan Niemela had seven points and 11 rebounds. Jacob Johnson scored five points. Brodie Avalon had three points. Nathan Garrett and Isaiah Pena added two points apiece.

Wahkiakum 6 15 12 14 --47

Ilwaco 13 18 16 24 --71

“Seniors Levi Hauff and Elijah Cothren turned out and worked their butts off in practice,” Souvenir said. “They are good kids and they made the other kids better. They took advantage of that opportunity to spend time with their friends and have fun. I encourage kids to turn out for all sports, one of the advantages of going to small schools.”

“I thought we definitely improved from the beginning to the end of the season,” he continued. “I’d like to call out Tanner Collupy for his work ethic, for what he does on the boards for us, and defensively. A guy that doesn’t need to score, when you have a group of guys that all want to score, you need one of those. He did a great job for us in that aspect.

"I’m really excited for what’s returning. I thought we learned a lot as a team, and I think we are going to benefit from it going into next year.”