Samantha Martin stretches out to save a ball from going out of bounds. (John Fisken photos)
McKayla Bailey doin’ work: “Yeah, you’d better stay over there! They don’t call ’em the Elbows o’ Death for nothing!!”
McKayla Bailey ain’t no push-over.
The Coupeville High School sophomore will — if we’re being slightly polite here — cut a wench. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
“Turtle Shell” can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’ and she can inflict that lickin’, as well. That much was on display Tuesday in a JV girls’ basketball game that was most memorable for Bailey rocking a visiting Lakewood player with her patented Elbow ‘o Death, then stealing the ball on the next play and driving hard at the hoop, only to stop on a dime and swish a soft jumper over a flailing defender.
She also proved her toughness midway through the fourth quarter when she was the one who was rocked, taking a nasty shot to the chin that was loud enough it brought tears to the eyes of people in the relative safety of the stands.
Obviously in great pain, she waved off a trip to the sidelines and sprinted down court, where most of the Lakewood players took a step back, perhaps afraid the elbows were coming out again.
It was at that point that Wolf teammate Emily Coulter decided to try out her own tribute to Bailey.
Going to the ground in a brawl for a loose ball, she forcibly separated said ball and the girl trying in vain to hold on to it, depositing the Cougar in a heap, then standing over her for a moment, hands on hip, stern look of judgement on her face. Then she smiled.
And now, at this point, you’re wondering why we’ve gone so far in to the story without the score. It’s kind of because I was hoping you’d forget to ask.
Fine. The final score was 27-10 in favor of the visitors, but it wasn’t as much of a blowout as that might sound.
Coupeville actually cut the lead to 15-10 on the first play of the third quarter, as Miranda Engle dropped a beautiful pass over the top to a cutting Wynter Thorne, who caught the ball and converted the bucket in one smooth move.
Then Lakewood got lucky when a three-point bomb banked off the glass, rattled around and dropped in at the end of the shot clock. After that, it was a long frustrating slog for the Wolves, who couldn’t get a shot to drop from any angle.
Julia Felici brought the crowd to their feet for a moment when it looked like she would rattle in her own three-pointer — which would have been the first points of the season for the hard-working junior — but the ball refused to stay in the basket, popping back out.
Thorne led the limited scoring attack with four, while Kacie Kiel, Engle and Bailey each chipped in with a bucket.
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