Freshman Mia Littlejohn popped for a varsity career-high nine points Monday. (John Fisken photo)
The two-woman game worked pretty well for Mt. Baker.
With Emily Brandland dropping 24 and Emily Yost adding 22, the Mountaineer duo outscored host Coupeville by themselves Monday night.
Toss in a few points from the supporting cast and superb control of the game by speedy point guard Kylee Engholm and what had been a deadlocked girls’ basketball game at the half turned into a semi-rout by the end, with Mt. Baker strolling back to the bus with a 59-44 win.
The non-conference loss dropped the Wolf girls to 2-2.
Coupeville will have three days of practice to right their ship before traveling to Klahowya (0-3) Friday night for their first 1A Olympic League game.
The Wolves looked impressive at times in the first half, using a 14-5 run in the second quarter (in which seven different players scored a bucket) to take a 21-17 lead.
After Mt. Baker surged back into the lead, Coupeville forced a 23-23 deadlock by barely beating the halftime buzzer.
Monica Vidoni took a pass in the paint, drew defenders to her and dumped the ball backwards at the last second to teammate Julia Myers, who came flying up the gut for a gorgeous layup.
The play caught the Mountaineers by surprise and brought the vocal local fans to their feet.
Unfortunately, the euphoria didn’t last long once the second half kicked off.
After trading buckets to kick the third quarter off, the two teams suddenly veered in opposite directions.
Mt. Baker started running the same plays over and over, successfully, while Coupeville fell off the edge of a cliff with a deadly mix of turnovers, shots that popped back out or dropped off the rim and a serious lack of rebounding.
An 11-2 third-quarter run by the visitors put a hurtin’ on the Wolves.
When they responded with back-to-back buckets from Kacie Kiel and Mia Littlejohn, the Mountaineers blunted the run with a successful three-pointer that was launched one step away from having the shooter out in the parking lot.
CHS, powered by Wynter Thorne, who popped for six in the fourth, tried repeatedly to cut Baker’s lead.
It didn’t work, however, as the closest the Wolves would get was eight, and the Mountaineers responded to that with a game closing 7-0 spurt of their own.
Stone paced Coupeville with 11, while plucky freshman Littlejohn hit for a varsity career-high nine.
Thorne banked in eight, the trio of Vidoni, Kiel and Myers knocked down four apiece while Hailey Hammer and McKenzie Bailey rounded out the scoring attack with a bucket each.
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