Coupeville Sports

   Makana Stone has averaged 15.1 points per game through the first half of the season. (John Fisken photo)

When they are on, they are as strong as they come. But when they are off, yikes…

The roller-coaster ride that is the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad continued Friday, but the plunge into the abyss wasn’t a pleasant one this time around.

Shredded by an undefeated La Conner team, the Wolves suffered their first true blowout loss of the season, falling 63-31.

The non-conference loss snapped a two-game winning streak and dropped CHS to 6-4.

With eight of its final 10 regular season games against 1A Olympic League rivals Port Townsend, Chimacum and Klahowya — teams with a combined record of 2-23 — Coupeville is primed to make a second-half run and possibly claim its first championship banner in a decade plus.

If…

“Maybe hearing and reading the hype about how good we should be has allowed us to be complacent,” said Coupeville coach David King. “At times I think the team has fallen into a sense of we are supposed to be good, so we don’t have to work hard and we will just go play and win.

“After the game we discussed what we need to do to get out of the rut we are in,” he added. “Wynter (Thorne) said we weren’t playing natural, not playing to our potential and forcing things. Julia (Myers) said we can’t just talk about improving and playing better, we need to go out and do it.

“The whole team agreed with Wynter and Julia. We also talked about going into practice and pushing each other to get better.”

Key number one will be getting back to sharing the ball. Normally a strong-passing team, the Wolves recorded a paltry four assists against La Conner.

That lack of ball movement blunted Coupeville’s advantage on the boards, where they hauled in 29 caroms. Makana Stone paced the way with 11, including five on the offensive end.

The Wolves looked like they would make a game of it in the early going, with Stone feeding Myers for the game-opening bucket.

Tied at six, things were looking good. Then, the Braves, who entered the contest at 8-0, exploded and the Wolves, who struggled mightily against a soft press, fell back, hard.

Racing out to a 37-13 halftime lead, La Conner had Coupeville so frazzled that the Wolves had more turnovers than points in the first half.

“Turnovers are really hurting us right now,” King said. “We can’t continue this trend moving forward. If we do we will see the same results like we did in this game.”

The Wolves rallied in the fourth quarter, the only time they played the Braves straight up.

“The fourth was our best quarter of the night,” King said. “We moved the ball well offensively, our defense was tough and almost matched La Conner point for point.

“In the second half we did a better job of holding onto the ball and lowered our turnover quantity,” he added. “Better but not good enough to compete with better teams like the Braves.”

Stone paced the Wolves with 13, while Kacie Kiel popped for six and the duo of Hailey Hammer and Myers dropped in four apiece. Monica Vidoni added three and McKenzie Bailey tickled the twine for a free throw.

Coupeville, which ended the game with two players (Madeline Strasburg and Thorne) on the bench with tweaked knees, gets a golden opportunity to get good right away.

Port Townsend (0-8, 0-1) comes to Whidbey Tuesday to kick off the second half. JV tips at 3:30 PM, varsity at 5:15.