Coupeville Sports

Wolf softball sensation McKayla Bailey loses her flippin’ mind after lil’ sis McKenzie drains a buzzer-beater. (John Fisken photos)

Monica Vidoni scored seven points Friday and pulled off two huge plays in the late stages of her team’s win.

This year’s edition of the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad is a very tight-knit one, which helps on nights when you can only suit up eight players.

Everyone knows their role and everyone picks each other up, and it’s paying benefits.

That was very evident Friday, as the Wolves overcame the absence of injured spark-plug Madeline Strasburg (who stalked the sidelines like a second coach, high-fiving, screaming out defensive assignments and even operating the dry erase board like a pro at one point) to pummel visiting Darrington 47-31.

The non-conference win improved CHS to a flawless 2-0 heading into a Saturday home tussle with Bellevue Christian (12:15 tip), while showcasing many of its strengths.

Strength one — they’ve got a genuine star in junior Makana Stone, who can take control of the game at a moment’s notice.

Against the Loggers, who were three steps slower and much more ground-bound than she was, it wasn’t just the game-high 17 points she poured in.

It was also the countless rebounds she corralled, the steals she made off with or set up for others and the way her mere presence in the paint made Darrington players step back and reconsider their shot choices.

Strength two — any player can kill you, at any time.

Coupeville hit its only offensive road bump in the third quarter, missing a string of shots and allowing Darrington to pull within 10.

Enter Monica Vidoni and exit any hopes the Loggers still had.

First the senior pulled off the smoothest play of her high school career, taking the ball and spinning to her left, throwing down a rolling hook shot while being hammered.

Shaking off the blow, she dropped in a free-throw for a three-point play that all but cinched the win.

Not satisfied, she then used her height to her advantage in the fourth, drawing a defender to her before firing a flawless pass over the top to a suddenly wide-open Hailey Hammer for a quick and satisfying layup.

And it wasn’t just Vidoni, as fellow Wolf reserves Mia Littlejohn and McKenzie Bailey came up big-time when on the floor.

Bailey fed Vidoni for a first-quarter bucket, then rained down a pair of elegant jumpers of her own.

The second banked off the glass and dropped in a millisecond before the buzzer signaled the end of the quarter, sending big sis McKayla Bailey into a screaming fit in the stands.

“That’s my sister! THAT IS MY SISTER!!!,” she thundered while beating everyone near her over the head with the hand-written sign she had made in honor of McKenzie.

Littlejohn, a freshman with speed to burn, opened the fourth quarter with a thunder clap almost as loud.

Picking the pocket of a hapless Logger, she shot down the left sideline, with Darrington players in pursuit.

One almost caught her, at which point Littlejohn slipped into another gear entirely, leaving visible tread marks on the hardwood as she blazed in for a layup.

Strength three — Julia Myers, Kacie Kiel, Wynter Thorne and Hammer will cut a girl, if necessary.

OK, maybe not cut a girl, but beat the snot out of her within the rules and guidelines of basketball, yes.

Flying to every ball, ripping rebounds away from foes who wanted it less and, in the case of Myers, dropping an occasional inadvertent full-body slam on a fool who tried to wrestle a ball from her grasp (it is to laugh…).

Darrington had talent, it had a deadly outside shooter who, behind her glasses, had the eyes of a long-range killer and the Loggers played with passion and heart.

But Coupeville wanted this one more. They wanted to make another step on the path to their goal of breaking years of drought and carrying the Wolf banner back to the state tourney.

And they did. Emphatically.