Despite Valiant Effort, Bulldogs Lose To Mules

SPOKANE -- The last Touchet Valley basketball team standing fell on the last day of the Hardwood Classic Final 8 tournament at the Spokane Arena, but not without a valiant fight that showed the 2012 Bulldogs had every right to compete against the best in the state.

After posting a narrow victory against the LaConner Braves on Friday night, the Dogs faced the Wahkiakum Mules who had put away the Lake Roosevelt Raiders on Friday afternoon to qualify for the fourth/sixth place matchup against Dayton.

The nimble, quick and precision- guided Mules proved to be too much for the Bulldogs, whose own shooting fell far short, shooting barely 26 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from the free-throw line.

The Mules prevailed, 57- 41, over the Bulldogs.

Right from tipoff, Wahkiakum showed its scoring prowess with a trey in the opening seconds of the game. Despite the Bulldogs' best efforts to keep pace, the Mules' lead was already 19-8 by the end of the first quarter.

"They shoot the ball well. We knew that going in," Bulldogs head coach Roy Ramirez said. "We got our shots, but couldn't make them."

Ramirez said his team had a tough time hitting its stride in the 9:30 a.m. contest.

Many of Dayton's attacks under the basket proved fruitless despite several new passing tactics, while the Mules kept firing successful treys, field goals and penetrating Dayton's defense for layups.

"We didn't play as well as a team defensively," Bulldog Hayden Fullerton said after the game. "We didn't click as well on offense. Momentum is a lot of it. Without it you don't have the confidence you need."

By halftime, Wahkiakum had a 29-18 lead built up after a physical hand-to-hand struggle that sent the Mules to the free-throw line more than the Dogs.

The Mules buried another opening trey after the break to widen the scoring gap. The starters on both teams got a break when the coaches put in their bench players. The change paid some early dividends for the Dogs, whose Johnny Sanchez and Isaiah Lambert scored crowd-inspiring goals. But when the Wahkiakum bench put points on the board, they outscored the Dayton bench and the Dogs faced an even bigger deficit, 42-24, at the end of the third quarter.

The Dayton team turned up the heat in the final period with scores from Frame, Fullerton, Kroft Sunderland and Joey Schlachter, but in the physical battles the foul calls went in favor of the Mules.

Turner's back- to- back layups in the last 2 minutes could not stem the points flow from Wahkiakum and the game ended, 57-41.

Going into the locker room, the Bulldogs were obviously disappointed with the outcome despite Ramirez' observation that few teams are still at the arena by Saturday morning and the players should be proud of their accomplishment.

"They don't like to lose," he said about the team he has coached since grade school. "They're competitors."

Turner said his team lagged on defense, giving the offense little to feed off.

Frame said he felt the matchup's early hour.

"The early game got us," he said. "It got us out of our rhythm."