Coupeville Sports

   Sarah Wright had team-highs in points (8) and rebounds (11) Tuesday night. (John Fisken photo)

Some nights, you can’t win no matter what.

Ravaged by illness (Lindsey Laxton, Brisa Herrera and spark-plug Lauren Rose were absent), the Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball squad still scored more from the field than host Chimacum did Tuesday night.

Unfortunately, the Cowboys were dead-eyes at the free throw line, and that was just enough to spark a fourth quarter rally to carry them to a 29-23 win.

The loss dropped the Wolf young guns to 4-7 overall, 2-1 in conference play.

It was the first time the Coupeville JV lost a game to a 1A Olympic League rival.

After going 9-0 in the league’s debut season in 2014-2015, the Wolves had stretched their win streak to 11 going into Tuesday.

They didn’t go down easy, though.

Led by strong inside play from Sarah Wright (eight points and 11 rebounds) and Skyler Lawrence (six points, six rebounds), Coupeville led by a point coming out of the third quarter.

Up 18-17 with eight minutes to play, the Wolves were stung by foul trouble.

With several key players locked to the bench, Coupeville finally faltered, allowing Chimacum to close on a 12-5 run.

“In the fourth quarter we put up a lot of shots that just didn’t fall,” said Wolf coach Amy King. “We fought till the end though.”

Brittany Powers nailed a “gorgeous three” in the final moments to keep Coupeville close and “did a nice job stealing or getting a hand on the ball” all night.

Chimacum went with a press most of the game, but King was happy with how her team broke it.

Once they got their plays set up, the Wolves let the power twins hold the spotlight.

“Skyler and Sarah really impressed from the start with their shots, intense rebounds and just their sheer strength,” King said.

Kyla Briscoe, Allison Wenzel and Nicole Lester each dropped in a bucket to back Wright (8), Lawrence (6) and Powers (3) in the scoring column, while Ema Smith ripped down seven rebounds.

Briscoe pilfered four steals, Maddy Hilkey snagged two boards and Ashlie Shank collected a rebound and a block to round out the team-wide effort.

Coupeville faces Chimacum twice more this season, and King is ready to attack with a full squad at her disposal.

“We meet them again next week and the girls are already looking forward to that,” she said. “We have some practice to do though, and if we play like I know we can, the outcome will be different.”