Coupeville Sports

Mollie Bailey netted her first varsity three-pointer Saturday as Coupeville played at Nooksack Valley. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Sometimes final scores are deceptive.

After fighting tooth and nail with a very-good Nooksack Valley squad Saturday, the Coupeville High School varsity girls basketball team hit the skids late, watching a close game turn into what might seem like a rout based on just a quick glance at the score-book.

While the Wolves fell 64-41, snapping a three-game win streak, the non-conference bout was indeed that, a bout, for much of the way.

Coupeville, which has found another level to its offensive attack after a 0-3 start to the season, enters winter break at 4-5.

The Wolves, who are 2-0 in league play, don’t return to the court for a game until Jan. 4, when they travel to Shoreline to face King’s for sole possession of first-place in the North Sound Conference.

The 12-day break offers Coupeville’s players a chance to rest up from any dings and prepare for what’s ahead — eight-straight league games to wrap the regular season.

“One thing that holds true with this team, we never quit and keep fighting until the end,” said CHS coach David King. “We have time to work on some things during this break.

“Coming out of the break we need to look to play a complete game by taking care of the ball and getting back to owning the boards.”

Facing a battle-hardened Nooksack squad which “does a good job of ball rotation and getting the ball inside,” Coupeville struggled out of the gate.

Despite five first-quarter points from senior Ema Smith, the Wolves, repeatedly beaten on the boards, trailed 17-8 at the first break.

Things settled down quite a bit after that, however.

“In the second quarter, we started to tighten things up on the defensive end,” King said. “We held our own and kept the game within striking distance.”

While the Wolves weren’t quite able to chip away at the lead, they did keep the score close in the second (10-7) and third (12-11) quarters, and held an 8-4 advantage midway through the fourth.

Back within 44-34 and on a mini-surge, Coupeville was making a run.

And then it wasn’t.

Back-to-back Wolf turnovers turned into successful three-balls from Pioneer shooters, and once Nooksack hit a couple of treys, it couldn’t stop.

Raining down six shots from behind the arc, the host team closed the game on a 21-7 tear to make the final score look more lopsided than it should have.

Still, even in a loss to a top-notch team, Coupeville continues to play at a higher level than it did in the opening weeks of the season.

“We played well in spurts; we had good ball movement and looked to make the extra pass,” King said. “We also got to play some zone (defense), so that was good to get some reps in.”

Ema Smith paced the Wolves with a team-high 13 points, while Chelsea Prescott added nine points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Lindsey Roberts (eight points, five rebounds, three assists), Scout Smith (four points, two steals), Avalon Renninger (three points, three assists), Mollie Bailey (three points), Hannah Davidson (a free throw and three rebounds), and Nicole Laxton (three rebounds, two blocks) also filled up the stat sheet.

Fab frosh Izzy Wells, Anya Leavell and Ja’Kenya Hoskins all saw floor time, while three of their older teammates hit personal milestones in the game.

With her eight points, Roberts surges to 390 for her career, moving past Shawna West (388) into #24 on the Wolf girls all-time scoring list.

Scout Smith is just the 97th player in the history of the girls program (1975-2018) to top 100 career points, now sitting with 103.

And topping things off, Bailey connected on her first three-ball as a varsity player.