Coupeville Sports

Hannah Davidson banked in five points Saturday, helping Coupeville’s varsity collect its 10th win of the season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Best start in program history.

With one caveat, that is.

Bouncing back from an early deficit Saturday, the Coupeville High School girls varsity basketball team pulled out a close win on the road in Port Townsend.

The 34-28 non-conference triumph lifts the Wolves to 10-4 on the season, with three regular season games left to play.

Coupeville travels to King’s Tuesday, then hosts Granite Falls and South Whidbey, before plunging into the playoffs.

While the 10-4 record is sweet, the Wolves, with a little help from everyone stretching their imaginations, can lay claim to the best start by a CHS girls hoops team.

Coupeville was 6-1, matching the 2009-2010 Wolves, when they were originally scheduled to play Port Townsend back in December.

High winds and skittish ferry captains bumped that game off the schedule, however, and Coupeville fell to Nooksack Valley in their next contest.

But if we take Saturday’s rescheduled game and count the win as if it happened back when the bout was first set to happen, boom, 7-1, baby.

At least that’s how CHS coach Scott Fox would like to look at it.

“Technically speaking, we’ll put an asterisk next to this game and beat the record!! Just saying!!,” he chuckled.

No matter how we count the win, getting back on the ferry with a W was all that mattered.

On a night when Wolf senior Hannah Davidson was whacked hard enough in the face to draw blood, Coupeville had to scramble to find a way to get out of town in one piece.

“They were up on us all game, much better than we expected,” Fox said. “We went down early, then fought back to take the lead with some timely shooting.”

Freshman Maddie Georges, who has been dropping daggers of late, knocked down a pair of three-balls in the opening quarter, keeping Coupeville within 12-10 at the first break.

After that, her veteran counterpart at point guard, senior Scout Smith, stepped up with six points in the next frame, and the Wolves turned things (slightly) to their advantage.

Up 17-15 at the half, CHS was clinging to a 26-25 lead headed into the fourth, then hit big shots in the final moments to ice the win.

Georges finished with a team-high nine points, after hitting another trey in the third quarter, while Smith banked in eight and Chelsea Prescott scooped in seven.

Davidson (5), Izzy Wells (4), and Avalon Renninger (1) rounded out the scoring, with Audrianna Shaw, Anya Leavell, Tia Wurzrainer, Carolyn Lhamon, Kylie Van Velkinburgh, and Mollie Bailey seeing floor time.

Two Wolves reached personal milestones Saturday, with Smith bouncing from #42 to #39 on the CHS girls hoops career scoring list.

With 265 points, she passed Sarah Mouw (259), Carly Guillory (260), and Madeline Strasburg (261) Saturday, while Prescott, a junior, moved from #51 to a tie with Hilary Kortuem for #48.

The duo are knotted at 231, at least for the moment, and Prescott slipped past a pair of former teammates, edging out Mikayla Elfrank (227) and Ema Smith (228).