Coupeville Sports

The Wolves listen to coach Amy King during a time out. (Robert Bishop photos)

Wynter Thorne sizes up a free-throw Tuesday night.

Sometimes the final score really doesn’t matter.

There was a small, barely-seen series of moments midway through Tuesday night’s JV girls’ basketball game between Coupeville and visiting King’s that captured exactly what high school sports are supposed to be about.

Teamwork. Friendship. A commitment to the people who suit up and go into battle with you.

It started when Wolf guard Wynter Thorne, who had been busting her rear all game, had to come to the bench.

Hyperventilating and in obvious pain, she slumped over on the bench and teammate Kacie Kiel wrapped her arms around Thorne and then, moving Thorne’s hair out of the way, gently blew on her neck to cool her down and calm her down.

Staying with her running mate until she had regained her equilibrium, Kiel talked quietly to Thorne and whatever was said remained between the two. Then, when things were better, Kiel, a wiry fireball, exploded off the bench and back into the game, where she went right back to ripping rebounds away from bigger girls.

Shortly thereafter, Thorne rejoined her on the floor and went back to kick-starting the offense, feeding Monica Vidoni inside, where the sophomore banged away for 20 points in the paint, making her the only Wolf, boy or girl, JV or varsity, to break that scoring barrier twice this season.

Meanwhile, back on the bench, Madeline Strasburg, out with a leg injury, was screaming her lungs out from the end of the bench, using her megaphone voice to personally congratulate each and every one of her teammates each and every time they did something she approved.

Which was often.

Bouncing up to slap hands and offer encouragement at every timeout, Strasburg stopped at one point, leaned over and gently patted Miranda Engle, one of several Wolves playing through illness, on top of the head.

Like Kiel comforting Thorne, Strasburg taking a moment to rally a fading Engle will loom far larger as the season, and their lives, go on, than the final score.

That score? 57-31 in favor of King’s. But, like I said, sometimes the final score really doesn’t matter.

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Makana Stone rips down a rebound under extreme duress. (Robert Bishop photos)

You can tell the Wolves apart by the color of their shoes.

Breeanna Messner goes airborne to save a ball headed out of bounds.

Curiosity killed the cat, but free throws did in the Wolves.

Despite getting to the charity stripe often and early Tuesday night against visiting King’s, an extremely scrappy Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad then failed to convert, missing 16 of their 26 freebies. In a game of surges, both beautiful and brutal, that was largely the difference in a 41-33 loss.

It was a costly defeat, as a win would have given the Wolves the upper-hand with the Knights in the race for playoff spots.

Coupeville is now 5-7 overall, 3-4 in Cascade Conference play. A win would have left them tied at 4-3 with King’s, but they would have owned the tiebreaker. Since they beat South Whidbey in their first meeting, a victory would have put the Wolves in control among the three 1A schools in the eight team league.

The loss wasn’t for lack of effort, however, as the girls in red and black stared down the big, bad Knights and made them blink. Several times.

After a back-and-forth opening, with Bessie Walstad hitting for five, Coupeville led 12-10 with under a minute to go in the first quarter.

Then, things took the first surge, and it was of the brutal variety. Outscored 19-2 over about the next ten minutes, the Wolves failed to hit a field goal from late in the first quarter until early in the third quarter.

With the game slipping away and down by 15, Coupeville then just as suddenly snapped back to life and went on their own surge. Makana Stone hit a soft jumper from the side to break the ice-cold shooting stretch and that kicked off a 12-2 run.

Stone had six points during the run, while Walstad hit for another four and Breeanna Messner popped in a bucket off of a quick in-bounds pass that she caught in mid-air and flipped up and in the basket.

Wolf spark-plug Madeline Strasburg, out with a leg injury, was screaming like a wild woman in teammate Katie Kiel’s ear as the duo bounced on the bench and King’s coaches looked genuinely concerned.

But, while Coupeville put a scare into the visitors, an epic rally for a win wasn’t to be, as the Knights regained their composure and scored the next seven to effectively seal the deal.

A late 5-1 mini-surge from Messner (a pair of free throws and then a beautiful banked-in three point bomb) cut the final margin, but time, like their free throws, ran away from the Wolves.

The trio of Walstad, Stone and Messner paced Coupeville with nine apiece, while Lauren Escalle hit for three, Jai’Lysa Hoskins had a fourth-quarter bucket and Amanda Fabrizi notched a free throw.

Fabrizi and Messner also provided the grit, making off with several steals and spending a great deal of time bouncing off the hardwood in pursuit of loose balls.

Messner gave her body for the cause, catching a fast-breaking Knight from behind and launching her skyward, only to have the girl land squarely on Messner’s head and ring both their bells.

Proving that wrestling for a ball with Fabrizi aint easy, the Wolf junior flipped a King’s player up off the floor with one mighty wrench and left the hapless Knight with stars in her eyes after inadvertently slamming her foe to the floor, WWE-style.

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