Always smiling, even when they’re tired. Top (l to r): Lauren Grove, Makana Stone, Lindsey Roberts. Bottom: Skyler Lawrence, Tiffany Briscoe, Kailey Kellner, Mia Littlejohn. (Sherry Roberts photos)
The Wolves ponder the state of the universe as coach David King draws up a play.
Tired of the road, tired of tests, tired of dealing with a schedule from Hell, the very-young Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad is still in prime position after a narrow loss Wednesday.
Facing off with a Bellevue Christian team that entered the night at 12-1, the Wolves matched the host Vikings point for point until late in the third quarter, eventually falling 40-32.
The non-conference loss dropped Coupeville to 9-4, which isn’t much of a drop at all.
The Wolf girls still own the best record of any high school hoops team on Whidbey Island, girls or boys, and are set up to close the regular season strongly.
Sitting atop the 1A Olympic League at 3-0, the defending league champs have six conference games remaining, beginning with a rare home appearance Friday against Port Townsend (4:15 JV, 6 varsity).
As they head into the stretch run, the Wolves have been sharpened by facing down one of the best teams in the state.
“This game had a playoff atmosphere to it,” said CHS coach David King. “This was more of a heavyweight bout with both teams going toe-to-toe all game.”
Coupeville might have been expected to come out slowly, as it was playing on back-to-back nights, with both games on the road (the third time the schedule-makers have stuck them in that situation this season).
Also, it’s the middle of finals week, forcing the Wolves into double duty.
With Coupeville having sat for nine days with no games prior to this week, one might legitimately wonder at how their schedule was crafted.
But, in the moment, the Wolves were having none of that.
Despite having very few scoring opportunities themselves, Coupeville responded strongly, leading 8-5 after one quarter and earning a 15-15 tie as the teams headed to the locker room.
Foul trouble was stinging the Wolves, however, as the local refs called the game to a different rhythm than what CHS is used to seeing in its part of the world.
Team leader Makana Stone was whistled for her third foul late in the second quarter and started the second half tethered to the bench.
While the Wolves missed her explosiveness, freshman Lindsey Roberts stepped in to her shoes and pleased King with her aggressive play.
Roberts rattled home both of her buckets in the third quarter, while Kailey Kellner swished a long trey and Mia Littlejohn drove repeatedly into the heart of the Bellevue defense.
The Vikings, who had been scoring off of dribble drives the entire game, began to pull away a bit in the third, opening up a 28-24 lead entering the final eight minutes.
“Defensively we played better in the third and fourth, but we didn’t do a good enough job on the dribble drives,” King said. “We also left open some of their shooters and they knocked down some big three-pointers in the half.”
Taking advantage of more foul trouble for Stone, Bellevue stretched the lead out to 10 with four minutes to play, but the Wolves refused to bend.
They cut the game back down to 34-30, but the Vikings showed why their record is so shiny, calmly closing the game out in the final moments.
Stone paced Coupeville with a game-high 12 points, while Littlejohn (6), Roberts (4), Briscoe (4), Kellner (3) and Lauren Grove (3) also scored.
Roberts and Stone each had 10 rebounds, while the senior added four steals and four blocks.
Grove (seven rebounds, three steals), Kellner (four rebounds) and Littlejohn (two rebounds, two assists) all chipped in when it came time to fill up the stat sheet.
As his squad prepares to make a run at another league title banner, King came away happy with a lot of what his players were able to do against high-level competition.
But there are always areas to work on if the Wolves want to make a deep postseason run.
“The energy was much better tonight,” he said. “We proved we can play with a team like Bellevue Christian.
“To get over the hump we need to do a better job on defense and not let them drive into the key,” King added. “We also had 23 turnovers. If we cut these down by 8-10, who knows what we could have done differently on the offensive end.”
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