Mia Littlejohn and the Wolves are soaring. (John Fisken photos)
Kacie Kiel, seen here in an earlier game, shows off the superb defense that sparks the Wolves.
The Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad would love to be the team to break a school-wide 10-year dry spell and hang up the first new league championship banner on the gym wall since 2004.
With that in mind, the Wolves made a statement Friday, drilling the biggest school in the 1A Olympic League, Klahowya, 48-26 on their home court.
The first victory in any sport by a Coupeville team against the Eagles, it lifted the Wolves to 3-2 overall, 1-0 in league play.
CHS is the only team in the four-school league to have a win this season, with Klahowya, Port Townsend and Chimacum a combined 0-12.
With eight league games left to play — the Wolves face each rival three times — it’s too early to declare the banner a done deal, but it’s a nice start, especially since Coupeville won handily while having a bit of an off night.
“It wasn’t our best game on the season, but we fought through the sluggish play and girls not feeling well,” said Wolf coach David King. “We executed well enough on offense and slowed them down in the second half by going to a 3-2 zone.”
Coupeville jumped out to a 13-7 lead after one quarter, with Makana Stone dropping in six of her game-high 20 points in the opening moments.
The Wolves spread out the offense, as usual, with Kacie Kiel raining down three (“a perfectly executed play with the ball touching nothing but net”) and the duo of Hailey Hammer and Julia Myers both banging home a bucket.
CHS stretched the lead to ten, only to momentarily lose the momentum and allow Klahowya back in the game. A couple of quick buckets let the Eagles cut the halftime margin to five.
A defensive shift — the Wolves used a zone defense they hadn’t actually practiced — sparked things and Coupeville finally clicked in on the offensive side as well.
From that point on it was all Wolves, all the time, with Mia Littlejohn dropping in a 15-footer and Monica Vidoni taking a nice entry pass from Wynter Thorne and blowing past her defender for the bucket.
Izzy Severns, who led Klahowya to a state soccer title in the fall, did her best to keep the Eagles close, pouring in 16.
“She was all over the court disrupting our offense,” King said. “Next time we play them we will make the necessary adjustments and look to do a better job defensively on her.”
Even with several of his players fighting through illness, and starter Madeline Strasburg still out with an injury, King was pleased with the team-wide effort.
Eight of nine players scored, while the Wolves hauled down 35 boards.
Stone snagged 10 caroms, Hammer collected seven and Myers, Littlejohn and Vidoni hauled down four apiece.
Kiel ran the point superbly, handing out a team-high five assists.
While Stone was at the forefront of the scoring attack, Myers stepped up with a solid nine-point performance to back her. Always a scrapper, she impressed her coach with a “sweet drive from the right wing.”
“She caught the ball, assessed and then made a play,” King said. “She drove baseline, beat her defender and was able to get to the basket for a layup.
“Her game has elevated from last year and she is able to handle the ball off the dribble better,” he added. “This season’s version of Julia is a more confident player and it’s showing in her play.”
Kiel tossed in eight, Hammer swished four, Littlejohn popped for three and Vidoni and McKenzie Bailey chipped in with a bucket apiece.
Coupeville gets right back at it Saturday, hosting 2A Sequim in a non-conference bout. JV tips at 2 PM, varsity somewhere around 3:45ish.
