The varsity (minus Rhiannon Ellsworth), the coaching staff and former Wolf Erik King (in front) pose for a photo after a scrimmage Thursday. (Shelli Trumbull photo)
Total commitment.
That’s what the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball team brought Friday night. Playing on the road, with one starter missing and another fighting illness, the Wolves faced down the best team in the Cascade Conference and one of the best players in the state and held their own for great chunks of the game.
Unable to fully slow down Beth Carlson, who torched it for 33, Coupeville eventually fell 78-42 at Archbishop Thomas Murphy. But the score doesn’t totally reflect the fight the Wolves showed, especially in the middle two quarters, when Coupeville played virtually even with its hosts.
The score also doesn’t take into account the effort of players like Jai’Lysa Hoskins, who chipped a tooth in a battle for a rebound. Taking on two Wildcat players, she received a most unwelcome elbow to the face, taking the Wolves’ best rebounder out of the game.
“The girls played well, despite the score and our turnovers,” Wolf coach David King said. “The best compliment this team received was about a three-five minute conversation I had with the ATM coach and one of his assistants.
“He kept stating how well our girls played and how tough they are,” he added. “He said they battled and played hard the whole game. He said he had to leave the press on well into the 3rd because they couldn’t extend the lead in the 2nd and 3rd like they are used to doing.”
And, while the loss dropped Coupeville to 5-13 on the season after a 5-6 start, King came away pleased with a lot of what he saw. As the Wolves head into the final week of the regular season, he sees a lot of himself in his players, only a few of whom had any varsity experience entering this season.
“We may not win every game, we may not play well, but all year we have fought and battled,” King said. “They have a tough coach in me; I have high expectations for them as individuals and as a team and I push them to not settle and expect to win every game. I hope they realize how good they can be, especially with the effort from last night’s game.”
The Wolves, playing without senior guard Lauren Escalle (sprained ankle) and with junior play-maker Breanna Messner troubled by illness, jumped on their hosts quickly, with fab frosh Makana Stone — just back to full-strength after her own illness — scoring the first two buckets of the game.
Coupeville hung tough through ATM’s first charge and kept the game knotted at eight, before Carlson begin to really roll. The Wolves used three players to try and slow down the six-foot-two terror, but once she’s locked in, few teams have any shot at stopping her.
“She is the best player we have seen all season,” King said. “We did not back down once and played as well as we could against a very good player.”
Coupeville countered by turning ATM’s aggressive pressure defense against them by forcing a parade of fouls. After a rash of poor free-throw shooting in recent games, this time the Wolves were dead-eye shooters, drilling 16 from the charity stripe.
Amanda Fabrizi knocked down seven free-throws on her way to a team-high 13, continuing her torrid shooting ways of late.
“Amanda is playing at a very high level right now,” King said.
With Hoskins playing strong on the blocks (she scored all six of her points in the second quarter), Fabrizi forcing the issue and a variety of Wolves chipping in with buckets and hustle, Coupeville played ATM to a 38-31 standstill over the middle two quarters.
Hoskin’s injury (“This was a big loss for us. All season she brings a toughness to our team.”) derailed things a bit, but the Wolf bench brought intensity in the final quarter that made King nod in approval.
“The 4th, the score didn’t reflect our efforts and still working hard,” he said. “Rhiannon (Ellsworth) posted up strong against a taller and bigger player, got the pass and made a good baseline move and just missed the shot. Katie (Kiel) played good defense and Haley Marx had a great back door cut to get open. As she went up to shoot, the ball just slipped out of her hands.”
Stone tossed in nine in support of Fabrizi, while Hoskins and Hailey Hammer each dropped in six. Messner popped for five while spark-plug Madeline Strasburg nailed three.
While she was held scoreless — a rare occurrence — senior co-captain Bessie Walstad led by example.
“Bessie didn’t get any points but her game was solid like it has been all year,” King said. “I would describe it as smooth, not much wasted effort, but just plays hard.”
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