Coupeville Sports

Ariah Bepler (21) clamps down on defense. (John Fisken photo)

JV basketball is a tricky business.

Madly shuffling rosters for multiple reasons Wednesday night, Coupeville coaches Amy King and Dustin Van Velkinburgh managed to hold together their squads, but neither of their teams was able to pull out a win against visiting South Whidbey.

The Wolf boys took the court with just six players thanks to injuries and players still short of the necessary 10 practices, then had two of those guys — Luke Merriman and Brian Shank — exit with new injuries suffered against the Falcons.

Desmond Bell, who had seen time in the night’s varsity game, slid down and picked up some more playing time to give Coupeville five players on the floor.

He joined Ariah Bepler, Andre Avila, Beauman Davis and leading scorer Cameron Toomey-Stout in finishing out the game.

In the girls game, a narrow 24-19 loss, King had to limit playing time to allow several of her players to slide up and fill openings on the Wolf varsity squad.

She was also missing one of her key swing players with Skyler Lawrence being out with an illness and got her ball-handling from players who have never manned the position before.

While they might be new to running the game, freshmen Ashlie Shank and Maddie Hilkey both drew praise from their coach for their play.

“They are stepping up and learning how to play the position in live action and doing quite well,” King said.

The game’s top performance came from a player who the Wolves weren’t sure would even be able to suit up.

Freshman Ema Smith, who has been undergoing physical therapy, hit the floor and “went all out,” topping Coupeville with six points and five boards.

Lauren Rose tossed in five, Sarah Wright knocked down four, Kyla Briscoe popped for three and Shank slid a free-throw through the twine to round out the scoring.

Allison Wenzel snatched four rebounds, Hilkey made off with two steals and Brittany Powers had two rebounds and a steal she then flipped to her left hand (which she rarely uses to dribble) and successfully led the charge up the floor.