Raiders knock Mules out of state tourney

The Wahkiakum Mules boys basketball team lost 58-53 to Lake Roosevelt in the opening Round of 12 at the State 2B tournament on Wednesday, ending their season.

"We knew [Lake Roosevelt was] going to be a challenge, they were the number three ranked team going in," Coach Todd Souvenir said. "We had a good first half and were up by one at halftime. Lake Roosevelt put pressure on us and unfortunately we didn't handle that all that well and had a few turnovers. They got the momentum and had as much as an eight point lead at one point, but the guys did a good job of calming down and getting back in the game and making some big shots to cut it to one. Unfortunately we couldn't get the right look to take the lead and just couldn't quite get over the hump in the fourth quarter."

Zakk Carlson led the team with 17 points. Kyler Sause added 15 points. Brodie Avalon scored 10 points. Jacob Johnson had seven points and five assists. Titan Niemela pitched in two points and five rebounds, and Tanner Collupy finished the game with two points.

Mules 9 19 12 13 -53

Lake

Roosevelt 9  20  16 13 -58

It was the final season for seniors Brodie Avalon, Sebastian Britt, Victor Carvalho, Tanner Collupy, Dominic Curl, Declan Hendricks, and Titan Niemela and Souvenir had good words for all of them.

"They were a great group to have and they are definitely going to be missed," Souvenir said. "Declan didn't have a lot of experience but showed up and loved the game and worked his butt off and understood his role. Basketball is not Tanner's number one sport, but it was nice to see his passion and love for his teammates and how upset he got at the loss at the Adna game and the one at the end of the season in Spokane. Dom was the heartbeat of the team on and off the court. Unfortunately, for the last third of the season it had to be from the bench because of what he went through with injuries. He was definitely a positive influence on the team. Brodie put a lot of time and energy into the game and he's every coach's dream of a kid, willing to put in the work and time to make himself better. Titan is a great kid who works hard and has that basketball body that everybody would like to have.

"We held one of the best players in the league, probably one of the only true post players in the state, Josh Salguero of Morton/White Pass, to eight and 12 points in the two games we played them. A lot of that was due to Titan's defense against him. Sebastian is somebody who hasn't played a lot of basketball, but the time and effort he put in the game just to get a uniform, knowing he probably wasn't going to get the playing time was really cool. I think the guys really rallied around him. Definitely somebody who deserved every opportunity he got. It was tough for Victor coming in the middle of the season but he's a great kid with a positive influence on everybody around him. He made us better."

It is also the last season for Coach Todd Souvenir.

"It was a great group of kids. It was cool to see how much the guys cared about each other and the team and to see how much fun they were having, and dealing with the fact that it was coming to an end," he said.

"It was really nice to see them grow not only as athletes but as young men. Life isn't easy, you don't always get what you want. How you handle adversity and losing is sometimes more important than how you handle successes. This group over the last few years has had a lot of adversity from covid, and injuries. I was proud of how the team worked through adversity from the beginning of the season to the end."