Do not trifle with Julia Myers. (John Fisken photo)
Julia Myers will take a girl out.
Oh, the Coupeville High School junior may seem like a friendly, outgoing smile machine off the basketball court, but on the hardwood she’s a hard-charging, rebound-grabbing, rip-the-ball-out-of-your-hands-and-knock-your-butt-on-the-floor kind of player.
And that’s a good thing.
While the Wolves may not have been able to derail the best team in the Cascade Conference Friday night, eventually falling 67-33 to visiting King’s, they did manage to shake, rattle and roll the heavily-favored Knights.
Led by Myers, an elbows-swinging wild woman who “had her best game of the season,” in the words of CHS coach David King, Coupeville fought until the bitter end.
Even down by 30, the Wolves came five players strong and forced a shot clock violation with under four minutes to go, getting the night’s biggest ovation.
Now 6-6 overall, 3-4 in league play, Coupeville stayed even with King’s (9-3, 6-0) for much of the first quarter.
Four Wolves scored in the early going, led by Breeanna Messner, who hit a pair of sweet jumpers.
Firing on defense as well, where Monica Vidoni laid down a thunderous block, Coupeville cut the lead to 12-10 when Kacie Kiel drove hard to the hoop, drew two defenders, then banked the ball hard off the backboard while being pummeled.
That was as close as the Wolves would get, however, as King’s recovered to close the quarter on a 7-0 run.
The killer was a bucket-and-free-throw combo at the buzzer that left a Knight shooting her freebie with no time left on the clock — once the CHS band quieted down.
King’s stretched the lead into double digits early in the second quarter and never let Coupeville back in. Using their superior speed, the Knights slashed to the hoop for quick buckets, then started raining down three-point bombs in the second half.
Coupeville’s defense still shone through at times, as Makana Stone and Myers recorded back-to-back blocked shots.
Myers later inadvertently cold-cocked one of King’s better shooters, senior Karly Hibbard, during a scuffle for a loose ball, sending the Knight gunner to the floor, then the bench with an ice pack on her neck.
While the KO was unintentional, it was proof that Myers is fond of channeling her inner Dennis Rodman from time to time, giving the Wolves an aura of grittiness and do-not-mess-with-us attitude.
Amanda Fabrizi, another Wolf not afraid of getting scrappy in the heat of battle, paced Coupeville with 11 points, mixing running hook shots with driving one-handers.
Stone popped for 10, Messner scorched the nets for seven, Kiel hit for four and Myers netted a free throw.
