Coupeville Sports

Jai’Lysa Hoskins, in a rare quiet moment Friday night. (Robert Bishop photos)

“Who has two thumbs and is gettin’ kind of tired of all these turnovers? This guy!!”

First Jai’Lysa Hoskins started. Then she tore up the joint.

Getting the call in place of a sick Makana Stone, Hoskins contributed a little bit of everything Friday night in a game Coupeville High School girls’ basketball coach David King would probably otherwise like to forget.

The senior post pumped in six points, swatted away several shots, including one she rejected fairly emphatically in the first quarter and continually sacrificed her body clawing for rebounds and loose balls. Unfortunately, with a quick, brutal Cedarcrest squad in town, it wasn’t enough to save the Wolves.

The visiting Red Wolves, fighting for the top spot in the Cascade Conference, pressed relentlessly and turned a staggering amount of steals into breakaway buckets as they rained pain down on their hosts. By the time they called off the attack in the fourth quarter, a running clock was on and they were nearly home free with a 68-23 win.

The loss dropped Coupeville to 5-8 overall, 3-5 in league play. They will get a chance to immediately bounce back as they travel off-Island Saturday to play a non-conference game at Mount Vernon Christian.

Things looked decent at the start, as Amanda Fabrizi pulled off a dandy drive down the baseline, shedding two defenders and coming up from under the basket with a beautiful swooping move for a quick score.

Then, things just kind of fell apart for an extended period of time.

While Coupeville had started the game busting Cedarcrest’s press with ease, that quickly became more of an issue, and an onslaught of tipped passes, bobbled balls and bam-bam-bam buckets left the Wolves looking up at a 27-4 deficit early in the second quarter.

After a timeout to calm down, the Wolves responded with their best extended period of play, keyed by dead-eye Breeanna Messner taking the in-bounds pass and drilling a high, arcing shot from behind the three-point stripe.

With Messner hitting for five of her team-high seven points and Hoskins and Lauren Escalle chipping in with a pair of free-throws apiece, Coupeville limited the visitors to just a 12-9 advantage over the final six minutes of the first half.

The mini-surge carried over to the start of the second half, as Hailey Hammer worked her way into the paint for back-to-back buckets.

Then, things just kind of fell apart for an extended period of time, again, as Cedarcrest, whose only league loss has been to Archbishop Thomas Murphy, closed the game with a 27-6 run.

Messner (seven), Hoskins (six) and Hammer (four) paced the Wolf scorers, while Escalle, Fabrizi and Bessie Walstad each chipped in with two points apiece.