Coupeville Sports

Wolf freshman Haylee Armstrong made her varsity debut Wednesday, then joined the sisterhood by scoring. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

A rough night, but with some bright spots.

Playing deep on the road in Eastern Washington Wednesday, the Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball team struggled to find its shooting touch and paid the price.

Unable to hit a field goal until early in the third quarter, the Wolves got roughed up 56-17 by host Cle Elum-Roslyn.

But while the non-conference loss drops CHS to 3-5 on the season, the game did feature a strong second-half performance from sparkplug Katie Marti, and the varsity debut of fab frosh Haylee Armstrong.

Plus, there’s another game tomorrow, offering the Wolves a chance to immediately get this one out of their system.

Coupeville squares off with Kittitas Thursday at Central Washington University, then is off until Jan. 5.

Maybe it was tired legs, having traveled 130+ miles on a school bus right after playing Forks at home Tuesday night.

Maybe there was some wayward breeze in the Cle Elum gym, or the rim was tweaked and twisted.

Or maybe it was just a night where nothing was going to drop, no matter what angle the ball went skyward.

Coupeville failed to record a single field goal in the first half, netting just a solitary Mia Farris free throw midway through the second quarter, and trailed 26-1 at the break.

Things got better in the third, thanks to the rampaging force of nature keeping alive the Marti/Messner legacy.

Katie Marti opened the quarter with a free throw, closed it with another one, and in between sank a pair of three-balls on plays where her defender was a step slow to stop her gun-slinging nature.

Cle Elum had plenty of firepower itself, stretching the advantage out to 43-9 heading into the fourth, but the Wolves made sure the locals had to work hard for their points.

Farris made off with a steal to open the fourth, outracing the defenders as she slashed in for a silky layup.

Late in the game, Armstrong and Teagan Calkins connected on back-to-back buckets — the only time all game CHS was able to score on consecutive plays.

Teagan Calkins, here eyeballing mom Jackie Saia, played strongly on both ends of the floor.

It was a milestone moment for Armstrong, as the freshman was making her varsity debut a night after scoring 20 for the Wolf JV in a win.

Her fourth-quarter basket makes her the 243rd Coupeville girl to score in a varsity game across the last 50 years.

Marti paced the Wolves with 10 points, and in doing so, moves into the top 100 scorers in program history.

With 121 career points and counting, she’s #95 all-time, and just five points from passing mom Christi Messner (125).

After that comes Aunt Aimee (Messner) Bishop (168), Cousin Breeanna Messner (235), and Aunt Judy Marti (545).

Farris (3), Armstrong (2), and Calkins (2) rounded out the offensive attack at Cle Elum, while Jada Heaton, Lyla Stuurmans, Reese Wilkinson, Madison McMillan, Bryley Gilbert, and Kayla Arnold also saw floor time for Megan Richter’s squad.