Coupeville Sports

The Wolves listen to coach Amy King during a time out. (Robert Bishop photos)

Wynter Thorne sizes up a free-throw Tuesday night.

Sometimes the final score really doesn’t matter.

There was a small, barely-seen series of moments midway through Tuesday night’s JV girls’ basketball game between Coupeville and visiting King’s that captured exactly what high school sports are supposed to be about.

Teamwork. Friendship. A commitment to the people who suit up and go into battle with you.

It started when Wolf guard Wynter Thorne, who had been busting her rear all game, had to come to the bench.

Hyperventilating and in obvious pain, she slumped over on the bench and teammate Kacie Kiel wrapped her arms around Thorne and then, moving Thorne’s hair out of the way, gently blew on her neck to cool her down and calm her down.

Staying with her running mate until she had regained her equilibrium, Kiel talked quietly to Thorne and whatever was said remained between the two. Then, when things were better, Kiel, a wiry fireball, exploded off the bench and back into the game, where she went right back to ripping rebounds away from bigger girls.

Shortly thereafter, Thorne rejoined her on the floor and went back to kick-starting the offense, feeding Monica Vidoni inside, where the sophomore banged away for 20 points in the paint, making her the only Wolf, boy or girl, JV or varsity, to break that scoring barrier twice this season.

Meanwhile, back on the bench, Madeline Strasburg, out with a leg injury, was screaming her lungs out from the end of the bench, using her megaphone voice to personally congratulate each and every one of her teammates each and every time they did something she approved.

Which was often.

Bouncing up to slap hands and offer encouragement at every timeout, Strasburg stopped at one point, leaned over and gently patted Miranda Engle, one of several Wolves playing through illness, on top of the head.

Like Kiel comforting Thorne, Strasburg taking a moment to rally a fading Engle will loom far larger as the season, and their lives, go on, than the final score.

That score? 57-31 in favor of King’s. But, like I said, sometimes the final score really doesn’t matter.

Read Full Post »

Makana Stone rips down a rebound under extreme duress. (Robert Bishop photos)

You can tell the Wolves apart by the color of their shoes.

Breeanna Messner goes airborne to save a ball headed out of bounds.

Curiosity killed the cat, but free throws did in the Wolves.

Despite getting to the charity stripe often and early Tuesday night against visiting King’s, an extremely scrappy Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad then failed to convert, missing 16 of their 26 freebies. In a game of surges, both beautiful and brutal, that was largely the difference in a 41-33 loss.

It was a costly defeat, as a win would have given the Wolves the upper-hand with the Knights in the race for playoff spots.

Coupeville is now 5-7 overall, 3-4 in Cascade Conference play. A win would have left them tied at 4-3 with King’s, but they would have owned the tiebreaker. Since they beat South Whidbey in their first meeting, a victory would have put the Wolves in control among the three 1A schools in the eight team league.

The loss wasn’t for lack of effort, however, as the girls in red and black stared down the big, bad Knights and made them blink. Several times.

After a back-and-forth opening, with Bessie Walstad hitting for five, Coupeville led 12-10 with under a minute to go in the first quarter.

Then, things took the first surge, and it was of the brutal variety. Outscored 19-2 over about the next ten minutes, the Wolves failed to hit a field goal from late in the first quarter until early in the third quarter.

With the game slipping away and down by 15, Coupeville then just as suddenly snapped back to life and went on their own surge. Makana Stone hit a soft jumper from the side to break the ice-cold shooting stretch and that kicked off a 12-2 run.

Stone had six points during the run, while Walstad hit for another four and Breeanna Messner popped in a bucket off of a quick in-bounds pass that she caught in mid-air and flipped up and in the basket.

Wolf spark-plug Madeline Strasburg, out with a leg injury, was screaming like a wild woman in teammate Katie Kiel’s ear as the duo bounced on the bench and King’s coaches looked genuinely concerned.

But, while Coupeville put a scare into the visitors, an epic rally for a win wasn’t to be, as the Knights regained their composure and scored the next seven to effectively seal the deal.

A late 5-1 mini-surge from Messner (a pair of free throws and then a beautiful banked-in three point bomb) cut the final margin, but time, like their free throws, ran away from the Wolves.

The trio of Walstad, Stone and Messner paced Coupeville with nine apiece, while Lauren Escalle hit for three, Jai’Lysa Hoskins had a fourth-quarter bucket and Amanda Fabrizi notched a free throw.

Fabrizi and Messner also provided the grit, making off with several steals and spending a great deal of time bouncing off the hardwood in pursuit of loose balls.

Messner gave her body for the cause, catching a fast-breaking Knight from behind and launching her skyward, only to have the girl land squarely on Messner’s head and ring both their bells.

Proving that wrestling for a ball with Fabrizi aint easy, the Wolf junior flipped a King’s player up off the floor with one mighty wrench and left the hapless Knight with stars in her eyes after inadvertently slamming her foe to the floor, WWE-style.

Read Full Post »

Julia Felici made her first start of the season Friday, replacing an injured Madeline Strasburg.

The tallest player on the court, Monica Vidoni outscored Granite Falls by herself.

McKayla Bailey: “I pity the fool who has to play us.”

Complete and utter domination.

Down two key players — Madeline Strasburg (injury) and McKenzie Bailey (illness) — and with a third (Miranda Engle) still getting over being sick, there was a slight chance the Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball team might come out Friday a bit tentative. And they did for about one play.

After that first bucket by host Granite Falls, things clicked in to place and then the epic beat-down commenced. With Monica Vidoni pouring in a season-high 22 points and a host of teammates taking turns feeding her low in the post, the Wolves roared to a 36-10 victory.

Now 5-5 overall, 3-3 in league play, the JV squad had to overcome the loss of two of their main ball-handlers in Strasburg and McKenzie Bailey. The Wolves responded by spreading the point guard duties between Kacie Kiel, Wynter Thorne and McKayla Bailey, while Julia Felici made her first start of the season in place of Strasburg.

“Julia worked hard every second she was in the game, getting rebounds and steals,” said Coupeville coach Amy King.

The Wolves also benefited from strong play from their role players, as well, King said.

“Samantha (Martin) did, I think, her best job this season on defense, always moving and talking, not letting anyone around her get a shot off,” King said. “Miranda, who is also just getting over the crud that has been going around, did a good job with defense and strong rebounding and Emily (Coulter) played tough defense.”

Facing what King described as “a fairly short and noticeably inexperienced young group” in Granite Falls, Coupeville put Vidoni, a six-footer, down in the blocks and, with her teammates feeding her a steady stream of passes, let the sophomore unleash her fury.

By the time she was done, she had more than doubled Granite Falls team total, and with her teammates scrambling and pressing relentlessly on defense, the game was never in question.

“I told the girls this was the game to work on our plays, get better with ball control and really work on good defense,” King said. “We did throw on a press, just to get our energy level up after halftime and the girls took over from there.”

McKayla Bailey popped for five in support of Vidoni, while Thorne swished four, Kiel singed the nets for three and Engle banked in a bucket.

Read Full Post »

    Amanda Fabrizi, seen here in a game earlier this season, was deadly from three-point range Friday. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

When it mattered most, the freshman played like a veteran.

Scoring nine of her team-high 11 points in the fourth quarter — including three pressure-packed free throws, Makana Stone lifted the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball team Friday night and carried them on her back.

By the time she was done, the Wolves had turned a game-long deficit into a convincing, and very satisfying, 39-33 Cascade Conference win at Granite Falls.

The win, the second in three games for Coupeville, lifted them to 5-6 overall, 3-3 in league play.

“The second half the girls decided this was our game to win and that’s what we did,” said Coupeville coach David King. “Yes, we struggled mightily in the first half, but there is no quit with this team. It was a satisfying come back win.”

Every rampaging force of nature (even one as graceful as Stone) needs a wing-man to open things up for them, and junior Amanda Fabrizi was that gunner, tossing in two three-point bombs in the final quarter to loosen up Granite Fall’s defense.

Fabrizi’s first trey gave Coupeville the lead, and the second was a slap to the face, telling Granite Falls to stay down and accept its impending defeat.

It was a nice turn-around after the Wolves had struggled with Granite Falls’ deliberate style of play in the first half. Utilizing a spread offense, the Tigers ground 20 or more seconds off the clock on almost every possession, and then, when the defense finally broke down, beat Coupeville on back door cuts.

Emily Schneiders nailed three three-pointers en route to outscoring the Wolves on her own in the first half. With Schneiders hitting for 15 before halftime, Granite Falls held a 21-14 lead at the break.

But, as King said, “the game was a tale of two halves!”

“Granite executed their game plan in the first half; they owned us and the game. We went into halftime lost,” King said. “The girls received the halftime message loud and clear! We are a better team than what we brought in the first half (to put it nicely).”

Recharged, the Wolves burst out of the locker room and completely shut down Schneiders in the second half, holding her scoreless while making a 10-5 charge. Hailey Hammer and Breeanna Messner each dropped in four in the quarter to light the fire.

Coupeville also changed up its defensive tactics, and it paid immediate dividends.

“I don’t like getting out of man to man defense, but we had to make that adjustment late in the third or early in the fourth and went into a 3-2 zone,” King said. “Granite all night looked to take the outside shot and this defense really jumped started us and helped carry us to the win. We were more active and able to deflect more passes and get some steals.”

Once they recaptured that lead, with Fabrizi and Stone standing in as Coupeville’s version of a vintage Kobe and Shaq, Granite Falls wilted. Then, unlike Shaq, Stone buried her free throws with the game on the line.

“We have made some changes to her free throw form,” King said. “Right now she isn’t making them with consistency in games. But once she is comfortable with the form, she should be making at least 70% from the line.”

Stone had a splendid game all around, racking up five rebounds, six steals and two blocks to go with her 11 points. Fabrizi and Hammer finished with eight apiece while Messner and Bessie Walstad both chipped in with six.

It was a solid team effort all-around.

“Everyone contributed tonight,” King said. “Katie Kiel, Rhiannon Ellsworth and Haley Marx gave us good minutes and energy off the bench.”

The Wolves have a full week ahead, returning home for back-to-back games against league powers King’s (Tuesday, Jan. 8) and Cedarcrest (Friday, Jan. 11), before traveling to Mount Vernon Christian (Saturday, Jan. 12) for a non-conference bout.

Read Full Post »