Mule boys win 2, climb in rankings

The Wahkiakum Mules boys basketball team won two more games this week and found themselves rated the number 10 team among 2B schools in the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Rating Percentage Index (RPI), which uses a formula of the winning percentages of teams, their opponents, and their opponents’ opponents, to rank teams in the state.

On Wednesday, the Mules traveled to Kalama and beat the Chinooks 68-35.

“Offense was created by our defense,” Coach Todd Souvenir said. “We got some deflections and fast break points. It was a good opportunity to try new things, so we kind of changed things up. We did a little bit of pressing, and held Kalama to one point in the third quarter.”

Zakk Carlson led Mule scoring with 26 points. Dominic Curl and Kyler Sause added nine points apiece. Titan Niemela had six. Jacob Johnson scored five points. Maddox Moore and Nathan Garrett added four points each. Grant Wilson had three and Tanner Collupy scored two.

Mules 26 16 15 11 --68

Kalama 11 11 1 12 --35

The following day, the Mules beat Rainier at home 59-47.

“I thought we did some really good things on the defensive side of the ball,” Coach Souvenir said. “We held Rainier to 28 points in three quarters. We pressed a little bit, got some traps and steals, and again, it got some easy buckets. I thought we did a good job of getting the ball inside to Kyler [Sause].

Rainier did a little pressing of their own in the fourth quarter, and Wahkiakum struggled to adjust, but it wasn’t enough, and the Mules were able to hold on for a 12 point win.

Carlson had 19 points. Sause had 17 points. Brodie Avalon scored 13 points, Curl had six, and Johnson added four.

Mules 12 21 15 11 --59

Rainier 8 9 11 19 --47

Souvenir is not putting a lot of stock in the RPI and says the Mules will play one game at a time and treat every opponent like they are the best team in the state.

The Mules will head to Mt. Vernon on December 28 to play in a tournament and resume the season on January 5.