Coupeville Sports

A bandaged hand can’t slow down Amanda Fabrizi. (John Fisken photo)

Second game, same as the first.

Following the pattern set by the Wolf JV squad, the Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball squad dominated in the first half Tuesday in Sultan, then suffered a second-half collapse that cost them the game.

The 40-37 loss to the Turks snapped a four-game winning streak for the Wolves, who slipped to 5-3 overall, 2-2 in Cascade Conference play.

Coupeville is in a four-way tie for third place in the league, two games ahead of South Whidbey (0-4) in the battle for a 1A playoff spot.

The Wolves came out ready to dominate, holding Sultan scoreless for the first five minutes of the game.

With senior guard Amanda Fabrizi stepping up in a loud, hostile environment and pouring in points, Coupeville built a 20-8 lead going in to the halftime break.

“In pregame, we talked about and wanted to use the energy of the crowd and band that Sultan is known for (one of the best gyms to play in, in my opinion),” said Coupeville coach David King. “We wanted to run when we had the opportunity, play fast when we could, but not play out of control fast.”

Unfortunately, most of the positives went out the door as soon as the third quarter started.

A run of quick fouls by the Wolves and a sudden inability to deal with Sultan’s press opened things up, and the Turks took advantage, knocking down several long-range three-point shots to cut the gap.

“We did not handle the press well at all,” King said. “We played like we hadn’t seen a press before or like we had run a press break.”

Even with the letdown, Coupeville was in the game until the final moments.

Breeanna Messner followed her own missed shot and put the ball back up in and, her clutch play cutting the lead to one with less than 20 seconds to play.

The Wolves set up a press coming out of a timeout, playing for the steal, but were unable to get a turnover and had to foul Sultan’s Courtney Morris, who notched both of her attempts at the charity stripe.

Down to their final chance, Coupeville got off three shots at the end, with the final one from Madeline Strasburg (“Leaving her hands, it looked good”) barely rimming out.

While he wasn’t happy with the loss (“This team understands we let this game slip through our grasp, and, as much as Sultan won this game, we feel like we lost this game”), King was pleased with much of what he saw from his squad.

“Defensively I couldn’t be happier with the effort,” he said. “They are coming out and playing hard and making things happen. The communication on the court has been improving; we are starting to read things better and getting our hands on the ball in the passing lanes.

“We are rebounding well on both ends of the court,” King added. “They are seeing the positive results of the work they are putting in on the offensive rebounding side.”

As it heads into a high-stakes home match-up with Archbishop Thomas Murphy (3-5, 2-2) Friday night (6:45 PM), Coupeville needs to focus on the small things.

Staying focused under pressure. Making free throws (the Wolves were 6 of 15 Tuesday).

“This team has so much fight and will start looking to improve on the areas we need to and get ready for ATM on Friday,” King said. “We feel like we can compete with anyone in our league.

“We need to take the next step and not be happy with just competing but now expecting to win.”

Fabrizi paced the Wolves with 11 points, six rebounds and three steals, while Messner hit for six points and swiped the ball three times. Julia Myers and Hailey Hammer had seven rebounds apiece and Makana Stone spiked three blocks.

Strasburg (9), Stone (6), Myers (3) and Hammer (2) rounded out the scorers, while Kacie Kiel collected two assists in her first game back after sitting out back-to-back games with an injury.