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“It really sucks sitting on the sideline!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, elbow injury, McKenzie Bailey on January 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Miranda Engle (left) and McKenzie Bailey will both miss a chunk of the basketball season with injuries. (Melissa Losey photo)

No Baileys on the court tonight.

The twin terrors of the hardwood known as McKayla and McKenzie Bailey will be out of uniform when Coupeville High School hosts Archbishop Thomas Murphy (JV 5/varsity 6:45), but for different reasons.

Older sister McKayla is in Las Vegas for a softball tournament, while middle sister McKenzie will be on the bench after suffering an injury in her last game.

Youngest sister Molly should be fully functioning and shooting hoops at halftime, but, unfortunately, is not old enough to see playing time yet.

McKenzie Bailey became the second Wolf girls hoops player to be knocked out for extended time this week (following in the painful footsteps of Miranda Engle), after taking a hard fall during a game at Sultan.

The initial diagnosis is a sprained elbow, though the possibility of a hairline fracture has not been ruled out.

“She is super disappointed at the diagnosis and hopes to be back sooner rather than later,” said mom Donna Bailey. “She’s out two weeks minimum, longer if the pain persists.

“For now it’s a compression sleeve (for swelling) and a sling to help keep it elevated and immobile.”

The injury happened when McKenzie Bailey got a taste of hard-nosed basketball, Sultan-style.

“What happened was that one of my teammates threw the ball over my head. I turned around cause luckily the ball was going towards our basket,” McKenzie Bailey said. “So I started running after the ball and just as I grabbed the ball one of the Sultan girls came up behind me and pushed me down, which then caused me to land to the floor elbow first.

“As I went down she kinda came down with me and landed on me,” she added. “It hurt pretty bad so there was some tears but the ref actually had the nerve to tell me to calm down.”

At which point the always-competitive Bailey (it’s a family trait) gave the ref the stink-eye.

“I looked at my elbow when he said that and there was already a huge bump forming,” she said. “Obviously the ref didn’t know what he was talking about. Kinda like the rest of the game…”

While Bailey is following her doctor’s advice, it’s eating away at her.

“When the doctor told me yesterday that I would be out for that long I actually started to cry,” Bailey said. “So hopefully I will be back really soon cause it really sucks sitting on the sidelines not being able to play a sport you love.”

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Fabrizi, Messner sparkle in tough loss!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Amanda Fabrizi, Basketball, Breeanna Messner, Sultan, tough loss on January 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

A bandaged hand can’t slow down Amanda Fabrizi. (John Fisken photo)

Second game, same as the first.

Following the pattern set by the Wolf JV squad, the Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball squad dominated in the first half Tuesday in Sultan, then suffered a second-half collapse that cost them the game.

The 40-37 loss to the Turks snapped a four-game winning streak for the Wolves, who slipped to 5-3 overall, 2-2 in Cascade Conference play.

Coupeville is in a four-way tie for third place in the league, two games ahead of South Whidbey (0-4) in the battle for a 1A playoff spot.

The Wolves came out ready to dominate, holding Sultan scoreless for the first five minutes of the game.

With senior guard Amanda Fabrizi stepping up in a loud, hostile environment and pouring in points, Coupeville built a 20-8 lead going in to the halftime break.

“In pregame, we talked about and wanted to use the energy of the crowd and band that Sultan is known for (one of the best gyms to play in, in my opinion),” said Coupeville coach David King. “We wanted to run when we had the opportunity, play fast when we could, but not play out of control fast.”

Unfortunately, most of the positives went out the door as soon as the third quarter started.

A run of quick fouls by the Wolves and a sudden inability to deal with Sultan’s press opened things up, and the Turks took advantage, knocking down several long-range three-point shots to cut the gap.

“We did not handle the press well at all,” King said. “We played like we hadn’t seen a press before or like we had run a press break.”

Even with the letdown, Coupeville was in the game until the final moments.

Breeanna Messner followed her own missed shot and put the ball back up in and, her clutch play cutting the lead to one with less than 20 seconds to play.

The Wolves set up a press coming out of a timeout, playing for the steal, but were unable to get a turnover and had to foul Sultan’s Courtney Morris, who notched both of her attempts at the charity stripe.

Down to their final chance, Coupeville got off three shots at the end, with the final one from Madeline Strasburg (“Leaving her hands, it looked good”) barely rimming out.

While he wasn’t happy with the loss (“This team understands we let this game slip through our grasp, and, as much as Sultan won this game, we feel like we lost this game”), King was pleased with much of what he saw from his squad.

“Defensively I couldn’t be happier with the effort,” he said. “They are coming out and playing hard and making things happen. The communication on the court has been improving; we are starting to read things better and getting our hands on the ball in the passing lanes.

“We are rebounding well on both ends of the court,” King added. “They are seeing the positive results of the work they are putting in on the offensive rebounding side.”

As it heads into a high-stakes home match-up with Archbishop Thomas Murphy (3-5, 2-2) Friday night (6:45 PM), Coupeville needs to focus on the small things.

Staying focused under pressure. Making free throws (the Wolves were 6 of 15 Tuesday).

“This team has so much fight and will start looking to improve on the areas we need to and get ready for ATM on Friday,” King said. “We feel like we can compete with anyone in our league.

“We need to take the next step and not be happy with just competing but now expecting to win.”

Fabrizi paced the Wolves with 11 points, six rebounds and three steals, while Messner hit for six points and swiped the ball three times. Julia Myers and Hailey Hammer had seven rebounds apiece and Makana Stone spiked three blocks.

Strasburg (9), Stone (6), Myers (3) and Hammer (2) rounded out the scorers, while Kacie Kiel collected two assists in her first game back after sitting out back-to-back games with an injury.

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“If the game ended at halftime, we would have won!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, second half collapse, technical fouls, Wynter Thorne on January 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Carlie Rosenkrance, driving here in a game earlier this season, scored three Tuesday. (John Fisken photo)

A complete and utter second-half collapse doomed the Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball squad in a rough-and-tumble game Tuesday at Sultan.

After taking a five-point lead into the locker room, the Wolves came unglued when they returned to the hard wood, scoring just three points over the final 16 minutes.

Unable to buy a bucket of any kind, Coupeville fell 32-21 in a contest Wolf coach Amy King classified as “a Jekyll and Hyde sort of game.”

The start was as beautiful as the finish was ugly, however, as Wynter Thorne dominated in the early moments.

The Wolf junior pumped in the first eight points of the game — on three baskets and a pair of free-throws — while the Coupeville defense was her equal.

“Our defense was able to slow them down and stop them mostly,” King said. “We put a lot of pressure on the ball which resulted in steals or turn overs.”

Picking apart Sultan’s defense, the Wolves got most of their buckets off of finding holes and driving in for a shot. The few times they missed, they banged home their second chance shots.

Up 18-13 at the break, things looked good. Then they just plain got bad.

“I’m not sure what happened to the girls at halftime, but they came out a completely different team,” King said. “Our defense was scattered and not too effective; on rebounding we couldn’t seem to grab the ball at all and I know we work on blocking out all the time in practice … you wouldn’t know that by watching this game.”

Coupeville picked up a technical foul after a player slammed the ball on the court to punctuate their unhappiness over a call, and things degenerated from there.

The roughness of the game picked up soon afterwards, with McKenzie Bailey heading to the bench and an ice pack after being mauled in a battle for a rebound. Sultan later got their own technical when several Turks thumped on Wolf Emily Coulter.

“It was a physical game and sometimes you just need to work through the pressure and hold your own despite what the other team is doing,” King said. “The girls did not give up – they kept fighting. I was happy with our aggressive effort for most of the game.

“I threw out a challenge after our last game and most of the girls stepped up to that challenge,” she added. “Changes will be made for playing time and starters come Friday. Nobody’s spot is set in stone and if the girls put on the court don’t step up, I’m putting somebody else in who will.”

Thorne’s eight points paced Coupeville, while Jennifer Spark popped for four, Carlie Rosenkrance tickled the twine for three and Lauren Grove, Monica Vidoni and Coulter chipped in with two points apiece.

Vidoni’s bucket came off of an offensive rebound, while Grove and Coulter notched their points at the free-throw line.

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Ankle betrays Engle!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, Injury, Miranda Engle on January 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Volleyball/basketball/fishing star Miranda Engle.

An ankle injury will knock out one of Coupeville’s more promising young players for the entire season.

Wolf sophomore post Miranda Engle, who hasn’t been able to play this year as she battles injury and illness, had just gotten her 10 practices in and was eligible to suit up.

Then, she tore a ligament in her ankle during a practice and doctors have told her to sit.

A strong player for the JV squad as a freshman, Engle will continue to contribute behind the scenes, said Coupeville JV coach Amy King.

“She came to practices and worked hard to be ready for when she did get in,” King said. “She will continue on with the team in a supportive role, which we all really appreciate!

“Hopefully she will heal in full and be back in full force next season.”

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