Mattea Miller, seen here in an earlier game, and her teammates rolled to a big win Friday against a squad from a 2A school. (John Fisken photo)
Lauren Grove (3) has been locked-in on defense all season. (Shelli Trumbull photo)
For one play, Granite Falls thought it was in the game.
Visiting Coupeville Friday night, the Tiger JV girls’ basketball team kicked off the game by banking in a long, arcing three-point bucket.
That was the last time they had a chance.
After that it was all Wolves, all the time, as CHS broke the game open with a 15-0 run, closed it with a 16-2 surge and rolled to a not-as-close-as-it-might-sound 38-15 victory.
With nine of its 12 players scoring, led by eight apiece from Skyler Lawrence and Carlie Rosenkrance, Coupeville outplayed Granite in every facet of the game.
The Wolves were stronger on the boards, fought with much more ferocity for loose balls, worked the ball with crisper passing and, while they didn’t hit all their shots, nailed the ones they needed to sap Granite Falls’ fight.
Lawrence, who banged home a bucket in each of the four quarters, was a prime example.
She would not, could not, be denied when a rebound was anywhere within two zip codes of her.
If Lawrence’s fingers even grazed a ball, they would snap down on the sphere like a steel trap and the ball could not be pried back out by even the most determined of Tigers.
Five different Wolves scored as Coupeville reeled off 15 straight from midway through the first until right before halftime.
Rosenkrance hit for five during the surge, Lawrence converted a pair of offensive boards into buckets and Lauren Grove, Mattea Miller and Tiffany Briscoe banged home two points apiece.
Granite Falls finally stopped the bleeding with a desperation trey that, against all hope, stayed in the bucket.
But then, bam, the Wolves flipped the switch again, with Grove and Emily Coulter harassing the Tiger ball-handlers into a string of turnovers, shot clock violations and traveling calls.
At one point Granite failed to get a shot off on five consecutive aborted trips down the floor. With most of their shots failing to land anywhere near the rim, it might not have mattered, however.
Grove hit for five to back up the inside-outside tandem of Lawrence and Rosenkrance, while Miller netted four. Briscoe (3), Coulter (3), Jenn Spark (3), Sophia Jebrail (2) and McKenzie Bailey (2) rounded out the scorers.
Kailey Kellner, Erin Josue and Aura Corredor all chipped in with hustle and defensive intensity, with Kellner making off with a nifty steal and feed to Grove for a breakaway bucket.
