Mountaineers Can’t Keep Up With Mules

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CASTLE ROCK — The Rainier girls basketball team hit the first basket, a Selena Niemi 3-pointer that put the Mountaineers ahead early, but after the early shot, it was all Wahkiakum in a 60-38 contest Thursday night. 

The Mules scored 18 unanswered points after Niemi’s first shot, and ended the first quarter on a 21-3 run. 

The Mountaineers could never recover from that opening stretch. 

“It was a tough start,” Mountaineers coach Brandon Eygabroad said. “Wahkiakum likes to apply pressure and get after it defensively, and we weren’t quite ready for that pressure tonight and it affected us. We played more into their style of play rather than ours. We played more like ourselves in the second half but it was too late by then, we could never claw our way back in.”

No Rainier player cracked double figures in a tough night shooting, but Brooklynn Swenson and Faith Boesch led the Mountaineers with nine points a piece. Bryn Beckman also finished with eight points. 

Now Rainier will look to turn its attention to a winner-to-regionals, loser-out contest at W.F. West High School this Saturday against Onalaska in the 2B District IV fifth-place game at 10 a.m.

“It’s do-or-die, so if we’re not bringing it we’re going to go home,” Eygabroad said. “So we have to bring it and it’s gotta be from the tip, we have to set the tone.”