Morgan Stevens and the Coupeville High School JV girls played strong defense Wednesday, but lost at La Conner. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Wolf coach Megan Smith ponders the universe.
Well, that was unexpected.
Playing for the first time in a week-and-a-half, the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball team faced two different La Conner teams Wednesday afternoon.
It was the same players, but the Braves, who couldn’t buy a bucket for 22 minutes, suddenly became a five-pack of sharpshooters in the game’s final 10 minutes, rallying to bounce the visiting Wolves 25-19.
La Conner trailed 14-6 with a hair over two minutes left in the third quarter, before closing on a 19-5 tear which seemed to come virtually out of nowhere.
The loss drops Coupeville to 1-2 on the season.
It was an oddly-paced game from start to finish, as both teams failed to generate much offense in the first half.
La Conner actually got on the board first, when a Hail Mary three-ball somehow found the bottom of the net after 145 scoreless seconds to open play.
Coupeville responded, slowly but surely, using free throws from Madison McMillan and Lyla Stuurmans, packaged around Stuurmans going coast-to-coast on a breakaway, to ease out to a 4-3 lead at the first break.
Stuurmans bucket was set up by a steal and dish by Reese Wilkinson, and she, Katie Marti, and Skylar Parker brought the defensive heat all game.
If the first quarter didn’t make the scoreboard operator have to do a whole lot of work, the second frame was largely the same.
La Conner hit another three-ball which was more about luck than skill, while Coupeville managed just a pair of Marti free-throws, one coming early in the quarter, the other late.
Things took a quick turn for the better in the third quarter — or so it seemed — as the Wolves burst out of the locker room with an 8-0 run.
Jessenia Camarena drilled the bottom out of the net on a jumper to kickstart things, followed by Stuurmans snatching a defensive rebound, then hitting turbo on an end-to-end run for a layup.
McMillan notched Coupeville’s next two buckets, the first off a steal, the second courtesy a rebound, and up 14-6, the Wolves seemed golden.
Spoiler alert — they were not.
The rims at the Landy James Activity Center suddenly refused to accept any CHS shots, no matter whether they came from in the paint or out beyond the arc.
At the same exact moment in time, La Conner’s JV girls morphed before our very eyes from a wildly-inconsistent squad into one which somewhat resembled their school’s high-flying varsity.
The Braves closed the third quarter on a 5-0 run, and this time a three-ball which tumbled through the sky looked crisp and intended.
Things got worse from there — for Coupeville at least — as La Conner scored the first 10 points of the final frame, capping a 15-0 run which left at least one person watching the video stream flabbergasted.
Me, it was me.
Coupeville finally stopped the bleeding when McMillan slapped home a layup off of a long outlet pass from Stuurmans, but time ran away from the Wolves.
“Unfortunately for us, their shots started to fall and ours stopped falling,” said CHS coach Megan Smith. “Definitely a learning game for us, and we will go back to practice and fix a few things to get ready for Orcas on Saturday.
“We played hard and left it all on the court,” she added. “No coach can be mad about that though.”
McMillan and Stuurmans paced CHS, both finishing with seven points, while Marti banked in three, and Camarena rounded out the scorers with two.
Desi Ramirez, Kassidy Upchurch, Pam Morrell, Parker, Wilkinson, Morgan Stevens, and Bryley Gilbert all saw floor time for the Wolves.
Coupeville Sports 
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