Coupeville Sports

   Freshman Chelsea Prescott tossed in seven points Friday in a varsity loss. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Sometimes it’s just not your night.

A combination of a depleted roster, unfriendly refs and a cold shooting touch doomed the Coupeville High School girls basketball squad Friday deep on the road.

By the time the Wolves pulled away from North Mason, they had endured a 39-17 non-conference loss which left coach David King to simply say “very few positive highlights tonight.”

The defeat, which came in Coupeville’s first game after losing leading scorer Mikayla Elfrank to a possibly season-ending ankle injury, drops the Wolves to 2-9.

CHS gets an immediate chance to bounce back Saturday, when it travels to Klahowya for an Olympic League game.

The three-time defending conference champs, who are still trying to find their groove during a rebuilding season, are 0-1 in league play.

With just seven players on their active roster Friday, and some of those suited-up battling illness and injury, the Wolves struggled to find a rhythm on offense.

Down 10-4 after the first quarter, CHS hung tough in the second (being edged just 10-8), then went belly-up in the third.

A 17-4 surge coming out of the halftime break sealed the deal for North Mason, while the fourth quarter was a relatively modest war of attrition with the Bulldogs coming out on top 2-1.

“We didn’t compete on the offensive end,” King said. “Just not seeing open teammates and our passing led to a very high number of turnovers.”

While his team spent huge chunks of the game unable to buy a bucket, the Wolves did bring a strong defensive effort.

“Defensively in the first half I was pleased,” King said. “We were scrambling and causing them to rush. Kyla (Briscoe) did a great job getting deflections and getting some steals.”

Most of Coupeville’s offense came from junior Sarah Wright, who worked down low for a team-high eight, and freshman Chelsea Prescott, who swished seven.

Lindsey Roberts added a bucket to round out the scoring.

With the game out of hand in the late going, King called a timeout “to get a quick break and see if we could dig down deep and finish strong.”

The Wolves responded and finished with a final burst which gives their coach hope for the second half of the season.

“It was good to see from a coaches perspective,” King said.

JV falls in rough one:

“Mouth guardsh and shpit … JV didn’t win the war, but we won several battles.”

Facing a rough-and-tumble North Mason squad (if we’re being polite), the Wolf JV girls, who only suited seven of their own thanks to injuries and illness, got to play old-school, forearm-to-the-head ball.

And, while her squad fell 29-22, dropping their record to 5-5 on the season, coach Amy King, still getting over her own illness, liked the spirit she saw from her players.

“Something about this group, they didn’t care about the numbers and they fought each and every quarter until the game ended,” King said. “Many of the North Mason team wore mouth guards, spitting as they talked; they were overly aggressive for no apparent reason.

“Their fouling was relentless, but our girls fought through.”

Ashlie Shank lit the spark for the Wolves, piling up rebounds and steals as a one-woman wrecking crew.

“She was on fire all night,” King said. “Sprinting down the floor, directing on offense and an animal on defense.

“In the third she had a really nice offensive rebound put back – just came out of nowhere and did her thing.”

Others making big impressions included defensive wizard Tia Wurzrainer, who played all 32 minutes and was ruthless while patrolling the back court (“I love the way her game keeps progressing”), and the duo of Maddy Hilkey and Genna Wright.

Hilkey was a leader on the floor, helping the Wolves break the North Mason press, while Wright, recently returned from injury, was “a rebounding beast!”

As her squad makes the turn to head into the heart of league play (the JV is 1-0 in conference), King sees many reasons to be proud.

“Despite the loss, we knew that we played out best and never let up,” she said. “I believe North Mason was freaked out that we stayed so close to them with only seven players.”