Coupeville Sports

The look of excellence. (Robert Bishop photo)

So, this is what a mugging looks like.

Playing with precision, playing with fire in the belly, playing with five girls flying to the ball at all times, the Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball team administered a good old-fashioned beat-down Tuesday night.

Winning their ninth game of the season, the Wolves unloaded on visiting Granite Falls to the tune of 54-16 and it could have been worse. Much worse.

Ripping off 24 straight points at one point and holding the Tigers to single digits until late in the game, Coupeville hit Granite Falls from all directions.

It started with McKayla Bailey raining down a three-point bomb from the deepest part of the corner, kicked in with Kacie Kiel driving and dishing, finding open teammates for easy buckets time and again, went big-time with Monica Vidoni crushing a small team in the paint and then closed with Madeline Strasburg weaving and bobbing and dropping buckets from everywhere.

Before the game was over, the mercy rule was in effect and a running clock sped up the fourth quarter. Wolf coach Amy King refrained from having her team press and had her players juggle the sometimes difficult task of staying active on offense without needlessly embarrassing an opponent long-ago buried.

The first quarter belonged to Bailey’s dead-eye shooting skills, the second to Vidoni’s raw inside power and the third to Strasburg and Kiel runnin’ and gunnin’.

The duo had a series of breakaways, with Kiel hitting Strasburg in mid-stride with a long pass that led to a bucket after Strasburg juked the last defender out of her high tops as she zig-zagged past her.

The Wolves spread the scoring out, with Vidoni leading the way with 17. Strasburg popped for 11 in limited playing time (she bounces between JV and varsity), while McKayla Bailey was en fuego with six.

McKenzie Bailey and Miranda Engle each banked in five, Kiel rained down four and Wynter Thorne, Julia Felici and Samantha Martin each tossed in a bucket.