Coupeville Sports

Katie Marti, always ready to get scrappy. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

The second half was way rougher than the first.

Squaring off with a hot-shooting, hotter-rebounding Forks squad Tuesday, the Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball squad hung tough for 16 minutes on its home floor.

But then the basket stopped accepting Wolf shots, and things went South in a hurry.

Scoring only four points across the game’s final two quarters, Coupeville saw a 10-point game turn into a 56-20 loss.

Now 3-4 after absorbing the non-conference defeat, the Wolves get an immediate chance to turn things around, playing games the next two days.

Coupeville travels East for clashes with Cle Elum Wednesday and Kittitas Thursday, then is off until Jan. 5.

Facing off with Forks, the Wolves ran into a solid, fundamentally-sound squad which hit the boards with passion and rattled the rims on seven successful three-balls.

In the early going, CHS stayed close next to some inspired shot making of its own.

Madison McMillan put the Wolves on the board with maybe the most sensational shot anyone on the team has hit this season.

Slicing between two defenders, the junior guard hit a running bank shot that got up over the defender’s outstretched arms and back down through the net before she even had time to call “Glass!”

It was a thing of sublime beauty, and added to buckets by Jada Heaton and Katie Marti, it kept the Spartans on their toes.

Down 18-7 at the first break, Coupeville played their visitors virtually even in the second quarter, winning that eight-minute scrimmage 9-8.

Marti had the hottest hand in the frame, banking in a three-ball, before coming back around to score off of a rebound.

That carom came off of her own shot, as she followed the path of the ball, scooting beneath the rim and catching the comebacker off the glass as if she had passed it to herself.

While the Wolves were still trailing as they headed in for halftime, the deficit was just 26-16 and it still felt very manageable.

Jada Heaton fights for a loose ball.

But, after trading buckets to open the third, with Mia Farris drilling a long jumper just a step or two inside the three-point line, Coupeville’s offense vanished.

From that point on Forks ran off 28 unanswered points, hitting four of their three-balls during the explosion and making the final score look much worse to a casual observer who hadn’t seen the rest of the game.

McMillan popped a jumper with several ticks left on the clock to end the Forks run and provide the game’s final bucket, but the previous 15 minutes had been a killer.

Marti paced the Wolves with a team-high seven points, while McMillan (6), Heaton (5), and Farris (2) rounded out the attack.

Lyla Stuurmans, Reese Wilkinson, Teagan Calkins, Bryley Gilbert, and Kayla Arnold also saw floor time, with Arnold earning sustained whoops of excitement from her fan club in the student section.