Coupeville Sports

    In a game earlier this season, Samantha Martin (22) and Julia Felici (34) plot out the destruction they plan to lay down in the future. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Julia Felici knocked a girl into the bleachers.

So there’s that.

Otherwise, drained by illness, a post-finals hangover and a long bus and ferry trip to Everett, the feistiest team at Coupeville High School — the girls’ JV squad — came out terribly flat Friday night.

Facing an Archbishop Thomas Murphy team that was sizzling and relentless, all in one hard-to-stop package, the Wolves fell behind 28-2 at the half, saw the game go to a running clock midway through the third quarter and eventually slid back onto the bus after absorbing a 54-16 beat-down.

The rare misstep for a very competitive squad, it dropped the Wolves to 8-9 overall, 5-7 in Cascade Conference play. With games left against Granite Falls (at home Tuesday, Jan. 29) and King’s (on the road Friday, Feb. 1), Amy King’s marauders still have a shot at being the only Coupeville hoops squad to post a winning record in 2012-2013.

To do so, they’ll need to recapture the spark that came through when Felici and fellow ball-hawk Samantha Martin laid down the law late in the game.

“Julia used some special power by putting one hand up on defense and caused the girl she was guarding to fly backwards, both feet in the air towards the bleachers,” King said. “Yeah, it was a foul … so?? Ha ha, that’s what Julia’s look said.

“Samantha tackled a girl for a rebound in the 4th. She popped up with a “there’s more where that came from” look!”

The fire didn’t extend to the offensive side, as Coupeville threw up a ton of shots, but watched as each one found a new way to rim-out.

“Nothing fell,” King said. “Everything hit the rim or backboard and out.”

McKayla Bailey nailed the only Wolf basket in the first half, while Madeline Strasburg (a fast break lay up) and Kacie Kiel (a steal she converted into a breakaway bucket) provided brief sparks in the second half.

Monica Vidoni, battling illness, led Coupeville with six points while Kiel dropped in four. Strasburg, Bailey and Wynter Thorne each chipped in with a bucket.

The Wolves were missing a sick player (McKenzie Bailey), while Vidoni and Miranda Engle, both ill, were only able to play in spurts.