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Archive for the ‘Girls Basketball’ Category

Rough and tumble, and then some!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 20, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Tia Wurzrainer netted five points Friday at Chimacum. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Sometimes the score doesn’t tell all.

While the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball squad fell 33-25 at Chimacum Friday, Wolf coach Amy King looked beyond the numbers on the board.

“It was one of the best games JV has played this season,” the sage round-ball wizard said.

While the loss drops the young guns to 2-4 in Olympic League play, 6-10 overall, King was especially pleased with how her players have adapted in the past few days to facing withering defenses.

“Normally, when a team puts a press on us, we panic and rush everything and that results in turnovers,” she said. “For the past two practices we worked on slowing the ball down, spreading out more on the press break, passing more and dribbling less.

“This game, we did all those things that we practiced.”

With Ashlie Shank and Mollie Bailey doing “a great job passing back and forth up the court,” the Wolves showed off some of the “best passing we have done this season.”

With plenty of open shots to be had in the first half, the Wolves jumped out to a 6-4 lead at the first break, then went in tied 12-12 at the half.

Unfortunately, CHS lost Avalon Renninger, as the sophomore spark plug got knocked silly when a Chimacum player plowed right through her.

Adding insult to injury, not only did the Wolf star have to leave the game and go into concussion protocol after hitting her head, the refs also called a foul on her, and not the offensive player imitating a freight train going down a mountain decline with no brakes.

Even playing a woman down, Coupeville regained the lead in the third, with Maddy Hilkey, Tia Wurzrainer and Ashlie Shank all coming up with big shots.

Wurzrainer, who lives, dies and excels on defense, netted hers after a sizzling set-up pass from Bailey and some open encouragement from the varsity coach.

“Mollie made a great pass to Tia and she can hear Mr. (David) King from the bench say “shoot it” and well, if he says to, you do,” Amy King said with a laugh. “She shot it, made it and got a free throw as well.”

The game took a turn for the worse in the fourth, though, as Chimacum reverted to its standard style of “beat the ball-handler black and blue.”

“The game started getting rough,” King said. “Ashlie got pushed out of bounds, flying across the floor. No call. Mollie had visible red on her arm from being slapped. No call.

“We start getting tensed up and they capitalized on the errors we made.”

A 21-18 lead to start the fourth slipped away in a hail of non-calls and questionable decisions from the refs.

Despite playing against more than just the five rivals on the floor, the young Wolves never quit.

“The girls fought and never let down,” King said. “Once the game ended, we were all disappointed, but, during the post game talk, it was determined that we played a really good game despite the score.

“Our passing was great. We took the right shots, broke their press easier than the last time and everyone worked hard,” she added. “We see them one more time on our home court and will continue to work hard to have a different outcome.”

Shank paced the Wolves with eight, Hilkey (6), Wurzrainer (5), Bailey (2), Genna Wright (2) and Lester (2) also scored and Kylie Chernikoff and Julia García Oñoro combined for four rebounds.

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Big Shot Briscoe conks Cowboys!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 20, 2018| 1 Comment »

   Lindsey Roberts had nine points and 13 rebounds Friday as Coupeville rallied to beat Chimacum and move into first place in the Olympic League. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Give Kyla Briscoe the keys to the city.

Hitting a game-busting three-ball with just five ticks to play Friday, the Coupeville senior sent the Wolf girls basketball squad to an epic road win and a share of first-place in the Olympic League.

When Briscoe’s shot nestled through the net, it drove a stake through the hearts of Chimacum fans everywhere, lifting CHS to a 33-30 victory and capping a remarkable second-half comeback.

Now 4-2 in league play, 6-11 overall, the Wolves have won four of their last six and are tied with Port Townsend (4-2), who they face next, atop the conference.

That game arrives Jan. 26, and will be on Coupeville’s home court. The Wolves and RedHawks have split their previous two meetings this season, both winning at home.

With the loss, Chimacum (3-3) slips a game behind, while Klahowya (1-5) brings up the rear.

Friday’s fracas ended wildly, as the Wolves used up most of their nine lives to escape with the victory.

Having rallied from seven points down at the half, Coupeville was clinging to a two-point lead at 30-28 when Chimacum knotted things back up on a bucket with 29.5 seconds to play.

Facing a trap from the rough-and-tumble Cowboys, the Wolves beat it, cleared half court, but then got re-trapped and forced into a jump ball.

With the possession arrow pointing towards the visiting team, Coupeville retained possession, and, after a timeout and words of wisdom from coach David King, ran the clock down, looking for a final shot.

Then the Wolves almost threw everything away.

Enter Lindsey Roberts, who used her long reach to corral an errant pass and save the day.

Alertly spotting Briscoe cutting to the wing, she delivered the ball onto her teammate’s fingertips, then waited for the biggest shot of the year to go exactly where every Wolf wanted it to go.

With Wolf sophomore Scout Smith perfectly blocking out a defender to give her room to work, Briscoe caught the pass and promptly drilled it right through the bottom of the net.

Coupeville had to wait several agonizing seconds to fully celebrate, though, as Chimacum’s final pass sailed out of bounds as time expired.

The win signaled the Wolves ability to adapt, as they changed up their game plan after falling to the Cowboys the first time the teams met this season.

“Our first game against Chimacum, they disrupted us and helped cause 43 turnovers,” King said. “We knew we needed to improve this area to look to get a win.

“They make up for team height with quickness and an aggressive press and defense,” he added. “That first game it seemed like they were a team playing with smoke and mirrors. Sometimes it felt like they had seven or eight players on the court at once. So we worked to correct some things for tonight.”

Breaking Chimacum’s press, the Wolves scrapped and led for chunks of the first half, before a few errors began to add up and hurt them.

Trailing 18-11 at halftime, Coupeville righted itself during the break.

“After halftime we wanted to get back to what made us successful to start the game and just chip away at the lead,” King said. “We wanted to get back to Coupeville basketball.”

The key was coming hard on defense, as the Wolves, using a 2-3 zone, shut Chimacum down.

A 10-5 surge in the third cut the deficit back to just a bucket, then the Wolves tied things up at 25-25 midway through the fourth quarter on a jumper from freshman Chelsea Prescott.

Free throws from Sarah Wright and Briscoe, packaged around a no-nerves jumper from Scout Smith, put CHS in front by three before the Cowboys retied things to set up the frantic final 30 seconds.

Coupeville, which is playing without top scorer Mikayla Elfrank, who is rehabbing a shredded ankle, has pulled together as a team, with everyone chipping in, whether it’s with scoring or intangibles.

“All eight players brought passion and didn’t want to go home without getting a win,” said a proud King.

Wright paced the Wolves with a career-high 13 points, while also snagging seven boards and collecting two steals and two assists.

Roberts added nine points and a game-high 13 rebounds, while Briscoe knocked down six points, Scout Smith banked in three and Prescott added a bucket.

The other three Wolves were equally invaluable, with Ema Smith (nine rebounds, two assists and two blocks on a bum ankle), Allison Wenzel (three rebounds) and Hannah Davidson drawing praise from their coach.

After three straight seasons of finishing 9-0 in league play, this year’s version of the Wolves has faced numerous obstacles, but are still in the driver’s seat for a fourth-straight title.

The grit and fight needed to get to where they are at continues to impress King.

“This year, this league is a tough battle each game,” he said. “Tonight was our night and the big shot by Kyla sealed it. And a great shot it was!

“But it’s also making three more free throws,” King added. “It’s never quitting and believing if we play Coupeville basketball, we give ourselves a chance to win.”

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Hardwood snaps for a winter day!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 17, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Maddy Hilkey has had just about enough of the referee’s shenanigans, thank you very much. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

   Spying an opening, Kyla Briscoe slashes to the hoop, leaving a hapless defender sprawled on the floor behind her.

The always calm and cool Tia Wurzrainer puts the steady in steady-cam.

Mollie Bailey eyes the defense with an eagle eye.

   Feeling the heat coming up behind her, Chelsea Prescott looks for an open teammate.

   Sophomore sensation Hannah Davidson hangs out with the president of her fan club.

The sound of basketballs bouncing, sneakers squeaking and cameras clicking washes over the prairie.

Coupeville is deep in to its hoops season, with Klahowya visiting Cow Town Tuesday to face the Wolf girls.

Shutterbug John Fisken popped his head into the CHS gym for a bit, and snagged a collection of shots from both the varsity and JV games.

The pics above are courtesy him.

To see everything Fisken shot, pop over to:

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-basketball-2017-2018/2018-01-16-GBB-vs-Klahowya/

And remember, purchases fund college scholarships for CHS student/athletes.

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One bad stretch dooms Wolves!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Nicole Lester dropped in four points and was a force on the boards Tuesday against Klahowya. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

For two quarters-plus Tuesday, the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball squad was locked in a war with visiting Klahowya.

But then it all slipped away.

A 16-0 third-quarter run by the Eagles, spurred by a shutdown press defense, lifted the visitors to a 41-27 win in a game that felt a lot closer than the score might sound.

The loss drops the Wolf young guns to 2-3 in Olympic League play, 6-9 overall.

Coupeville, which led after the first quarter, knotted things at 16-16 on the opening play of the second half.

Maddy Hilkey cranked up a jumper from the left side and hit nothing but net, causing local fans to lean forward in anticipation.

Even after Klahowya netted a layup and free throw to edge out in front, the Wolves countered with their own freebie off of the fingertips of Avalon Renninger.

With the deficit just a bucket at 19-17, anything seemed possible.

Except it wasn’t.

Frustrated by the Eagles, who launched a back-court trap on them, the Wolves went through an extremely rough stretch for several minutes.

CHS turnovers piled up, with Klahowya turning many of them into breakaway layups, and what was a close game turned into a 35-17 rout as the third-quarter clock headed towards 0:00.

Renninger finally stopped the bleeding, hitting a silky runner in the paint off of a ball tipped her way by Hilkey, and the Wolves showed some grit down the stretch.

Coupeville closed the game on a 10-6 surge, scoring the final two buckets in both the third and fourth quarter.

Better yet, that late run featured four different Wolves — Renninger, Nicole Lester, Ashlie Shank and Genna Wright — banking home buckets.

Wright’s came on a put-back off of a rebound, nice payback after she got her head yanked clean off her neck by a rabid Eagle on a previous play.

So blatant it caused dad Ron to bellow “Hey now!” from the stands, it, nonetheless, failed to generate a foul call from refs who were letting the clock run out as they apparently had dinner reservations they needed to make.

Shank paced the Wolves with eight points, while Renninger (7), Lester (4), Hilkey (4), Wright (2) and Mollie Bailey (2) also scored.

Tia Wurzrainer, Kylie Chernikoff and Julia García Oñoro also saw floor time for Coupeville, with each playing tough defense down in the trenches.

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Back in first!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Defensive hustle, like this shown by Ema Smith in an earlier game, has kept the Wolf girls in games this season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The road to an Olympic League girls basketball title still goes through Coupeville.

While this year’s Wolves, battered by injuries and defections, aren’t running roughshod like they did the previous three seasons, they are still very much in the hunt for another crown.

That much was shown Tuesday, when CHS used a blistering defensive stand to throttle visiting Klahowya 28-17.

With the win, the Wolves rise to 3-2 in league play, 5-11 overall, and force a three-way tie at the top of the conference with four league games to play.

Port Townsend (3-2, 5-8) and Chimacum (3-2, 6-8), which Coupeville faces Friday, are part of the logjam, while Klahowya (1-4, 3-11) brings up the rear.

Facing off Tuesday with an Eagles squad which was coming off a big win over Chimacum, the Wolves clamped down and never let up.

Ferocious on the boards, Coupeville hounded Klahowya into a ton of bad shots and then snatched away the resulting rebounds.

While their own offensive prowess fluctuated throughout the game, the Wolves also proved deadly at the line, where they had a 13-5 advantage in made free throws.

The game didn’t exactly get off to a roaring start on the offensive end, as neither team scored in the first three minutes-plus, while Klahowya didn’t sink its first bucket until the 2:31 mark of the first quarter.

Clinging to a 4-2 lead at the first break, the Wolves promptly went scoreless for almost the first half of the second quarter.

But then, with the game knotted at 4-4, Scout Smith handed her squad a lead it would never relinquish.

The Wolf sophomore slashed to the hoop, drew the foul, then calmly swished a pair of free throws through the net to kick-start what would be an 11-0 run to end the half.

Scout Smith also drilled a jumper from the side during the surge, while Ema Smith, playing on a bum leg, but hiding it well, dropped in five, packaging a pair of buckets around a free throw.

Hannah Davidson slid a pair of free throws through the net with just a few ticks to play, and with Coupeville’s defense refusing to bend to Klahowya’s will, the game was 15-4 and firmly headed to the win column at the break.

The second half was a fairly even battle, with Lindsey Roberts stepping in to the spotlight to seal the deal for the Wolves.

The long ‘n lanky junior cleaned the boards like a pro, threw down seven points with a variety of moves — including a three-ball and a beautiful catch-and-roll through the paint for a layup — then punctuated things with a spike.

Late in the fourth, Klahowya was out on the break and had numbers, but Roberts, coming from behind, went airborne and firmly rejected an Eagle shot off the back wall.

Catching the ball with her fingertips, while avoiding the shooter’s body, she effectively ended the night’s conversation with a firm “No, ma’am!!”

Roberts block was emblematic of the defensive grit which has kept the Wolves afloat, even after they lost their #1 scorer when Mikayla Elfrank suffered a brutal ankle injury mid-season.

“Our defense keeps us in games and has really improved as the season has gone on,” said Coupeville coach David King. “Always happy to see us play like that.”

While Roberts was a one-woman wrecking crew, King also hailed the defensive work of others such as Sarah Wright, Allison Wenzel and Hannah Davidson, who “had her best game of the season.”

Coupeville, as it has done for much of the season, spread out its offensive workload, with Roberts tossing in a team-high nine.

Ema Smith banked home seven in support, while Scout Smith and Kyla Briscoe each added four.

Davidson and Wright rounded out the scoring with two apiece, Wenzel and Chelsea Prescott brought hustle when they were on the floor and Elfrank and Avalon Renninger were solid cheerleaders for their teammates.

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