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Archive for the ‘Girls Basketball’ Category

Hardwood aces tip off new season

Posted in Girls Basketball, Middle School, tagged , , , , on February 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Sharpshooter Kennedy O’Neill informs big bro Aiden she plans to score more points on the basketball court than he does. (Photo courtesy Ashley Blouin)

First road trip, in the books.

The Coupeville Middle School girls’ basketball teams kicked off a new season Thursday, making the trek down-Island to face off with arch-rival South Whidbey.

The Wolves came away with a split, plus their first taste of life in other people’s gyms, while CMS coaches Mia Littlejohn and Bennett Richter debuted as hardwood gurus.

How the day played out:

 

Level 1:

Coupeville 8th grader Haylee Armstrong led all scorers, but South Whidbey pulled away in the second half to claim a 31-19 win.

The hosts jumped out to an 8-3 advantage after one quarter, then slightly bumped the lead ahead to 14-8 at the half.

The third quarter was a killer for Coupeville, however, as South Whidbey gunner Greta Jones knocked down all seven of her points, including a three-ball, during a game-busting 11-4 run.

Jada Balora banked in six points in support of Jones, while Armstrong rattled the rims for nine points.

The sweet-shooting guard tallied points in every quarter and proved to be a deadeye at the free-throw line, where she sank three charity shots.

Capri Anter tossed in five points in support of Armstrong, with Tenley Stuurmans (3) and 6th grader Tamsin Ward (2) also scoring for the Wolves.

Adeline Maynes, Lexis Drake, Sydney Van Dyke, Chelsi Stevens, and Rhylin Price all saw floor time for Coupeville’s top squad.

Chelsi Stevens, a powerhouse on the taekwondo mat and the basketball hardwood. (Photo courtesy Kristi Stevens)

 

Level 2:

She who scores last, wins the day.

Coupeville went scoreless in the first quarter, fell behind 6-0 midway through the second frame, then stormed from behind to capture an 18-14 victory.

In a back-and-forth affair, the Wolves led 8-6 at halftime, South Whidbey went back in front 14-10 through three quarters, and then the visitors closed on an 8-0 fourth quarter surge.

Lillian Ketterling had the hot hand down the stretch, knocking down a pair of buckets to fuel the late rally, while Kennedy O’Neill and Ava Lucero also netted baskets in crunch time.

Arianna Cunningham paced the Wolves with six points, while O’Neill (4), Ketterling (4), Taylor Marrs (2), and Lucero (2) also wrote their name in the scorebook on opening day.

While they didn’t score, Isabella Bowder, Amaiya Curry, Isabella de Souza Oliveira Mc Fetridge, and Melanie Wolfe brought hustle and defense to their time on the floor.

 

Up next:

Coupeville has a week off, traveling to Sultan next Thursday, Feb. 16 to play Sultan.

The home opener is Feb. 21 against Northshore Christian Academy, and the Wolves get a rematch with South Whidbey — this time at CMS — in the Mar. 9 season finale.

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Hoops stars honor their veterans

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on February 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Team scoring leader Alita Blouin kicks off a series of Senior Night pics. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

“All good things must come to an end. 12 years later and I can’t believe that it’s over now.”

Senior Night eventually comes for every Coupeville High School athlete, even hoops star Carolyn Lhamon.

Part of the Fab Five — a group of Wolves who played together from SWISH through high school — she and her teammates were honored Tuesday night.

Lhamon was joined by Gwen Gustafson, Alita Blouin, Ryanne Knoblich, and Maddie Georges, as well as team managers Anna Myles and Karyme Castro Sotelo.

It’s the second Senior Night for CHS girls’ basketball coach Megan Richter, who started all five seniors against La Conner.

Gwen Gustafson

Anna Myles

Maddie Georges

Ryanne Knoblich

Karyme Castro Sotelo

Carolyn Lhamon

Young Wolf athletes, who will one day have their own Senior Night festivities, support Maddie Georges.

CHS coach Megan Richter celebrates with her veterans.

Alita Blouin and Co. get some love from classmates.

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Wolf girls keep eyes on playoff prize

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on February 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Maddie Georges rumbles in the paint. (Morgan White photo)

The mission is simple.

Hit the road this Friday, Island-hop from Whidbey to Friday Harbor, and win the regular-season finale.

Do that, and the Coupeville High School girls’ varsity basketball team is playoff-bound, with the bi-district tourney on their home floor.

However, if the hosts win Friday, the Wolves and Wolverines will immediately turn around and play a tiebreaker game Saturday at a neutral location.

Whichever team comes out on top in the battle for the #2 playoff seed from District 1, it will face District 2’s Auburn Adventist Academy in a loser-out game Feb. 13.

La Conner, the D-1 #1, plays D-2 #2 Northwest Christian (Lacey) in the nightcap of a playoff doubleheader.

The winners Feb. 13 face-off Feb. 15 for the bi-district title and a berth to the state tourney.

The Braves clinched District 1’s top seed thanks to a 48-22 win over Coupeville Tuesday night, hitting 10 three-balls to ease past the feisty Wolves.

The loss drops CHS to 8-9 heading into its regular-season finale.

Playing on Senior Night Tuesday, the Wolves honored the Fab Five — Maddie Georges, Carolyn Lhamon, Gwen Gustafson, Alita Blouin, and Ryanne Knoblich, and were stung by a slow start.

La Conner hit a trio of three-balls in the first quarter, building a 15-2 lead by the first break, and that put Coupeville in catch-up mode the rest of the night.

Knoblich came dangerously close to getting some of those points back, dropping her own three-ball at the buzzer, but the ball departed her fingertips after the buzzer clanged, forcing the refs to wave off the still-splendid shot.

After that, the rims turned fairly unforgiving, with La Conner using mini 6-3 and 9-3 runs across the second and third quarter, respectively, to push its lead out to 30-8.

All of the Braves points in those frames came via three-balls, and the one which stung the most was the one which found the bottom of the net with just a half-second left in the first half.

But, after struggling to score against the Northwest 2B/1B League leaders in the game’s first 24 minutes, the Wolves found their shooting touch late, banking home 14 fourth-quarter points.

It started with Blouin swooping to the hoop for a three-point play the hard way — flipping a shot up with her left hand while being hammered about the neck and shoulders.

Knoblich ended things with a pullup jumper in the paint, and in between those two buckets, Georges put on a sweet shooting display.

The fiery Wolf point guard slashed to the basket for a pair of buckets, hit a short jumper off an inbounds pass, and banked home a three-ball off the glass while staring daggers at her would-be defender.

The late-game rush gave Georges a team-high 13 points on the night and bumped her two slots up on the Wolf girls career scoring chart.

With 357 points and counting, she passes big-timers Tracy Taylor (350) and Amy Mouw (353) and sits #28 all-time for a program launched back in 1974.

Blouin tossed in six points in support of her running mate, while Knoblich (2) and sophomore Mia Farris (1) rounded out the scoring attack.

Katie Marti, Lyla Stuurmans, Gustafson, Skylar Parker, Jada Heaton, Madison McMillan, and Lhamon also saw floor time for Megan Richter’s squad.

Defensive dynamos Gwen Gustafson (left) and Lyla Stuurmans harass the ballhandler. (Bailey Thule photo)

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“They left it all on the floor!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on February 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Wolf freshman Teagan Calkins pumped in 12 points Tuesday night in a win over La Conner. (Jackie Saia photo)

They went out with a bang.

Playing on their home floor for the final time during the 2022-2023 basketball season, the Coupeville High School JV girls’ ran visiting La Conner off the floor Tuesday night.

Getting points from eight different players, Kassie O’Neil’s squad captured a 52-36 win, giving them a season sweep of the Braves and lifting their record to 7-8.

“The girls kicked ass!” said the Wolf coach. “Such a great last home game.

“They left it all on the floor!”

The Wolf young guns close their season with a road trip Friday to face Friday Harbor, before several swing players join the CHS varsity full-time for the playoffs.

Tuesday’s tilt with La Conner was the first time Coupeville’s JV was in action since Jan. 27, but the layoff didn’t seem to hurt at all.

Madison McMillan hit the floor with fire coming out of her fingertips, raining down 10 points in the first eight minutes, as she and her teammates built an early 18-5 lead.

From there, the teams battled through a 10-10 stalemate in the second quarter, before La Conner pulled out a razor-thin 9-8 advantage in the third frame.

Up 36-24 heading into the fourth, Coupeville closed strongly, with Jada Heaton, Desi Ramirez-Vasquez, Teagan Calkins, and McMillan scoring during a final 16-12 surge.

McMillan and Calkins paced a balanced scoring attack, rattling the rim for 14 and 12 points, respectively, while Kierra Thayer and Heaton both popped for eight.

Ramirez-Vasquez (4), Carlota Marcos-Cabrillo (3), Kassidy Upchurch (2), and Kayla Arnold (1) also tallied points, with Reese Wilkinson, Brynn Parker, Bryley Gilbert, Skylar Parker, and Liza Zustiak chipping in with defense and hustle.

Kayla Arnold waits for a potential rebound. (Jackie Saia photo)

O’Neil, a former Coupeville hoops superstar, is wrapping up her first season as JV coach, and the experience has been hugely positive for her.

Not just in how her players have performed on the floor, but also in how they have carried themselves all season.

“The thing I’m most proud of with this group of girls is that they continue to play with integrity and positive attitudes,” O’Neil said.

“When other teams play dirty, our girls always take the high road, helping others up and apologizing if they hurt someone.

“Win or lose, they play with spirit!”

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Balanced Wolves clip Falcons

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on February 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Ryanne Knoblich cracked the 100-point club Thursday night. (Morgan White photo)

Consider it a warning shot across the bow.

Facing off with a potential playoff opponent Thursday, the Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball team made short work of their rivals.

Getting points from nine players, the Wolves roared out to a 28-point lead on the road at Auburn Adventist Academy, then coasted in for a comfortable 42-21 non-conference win.

The third-straight victory for Megan Richter’s squad, it lifts them to 8-8 heading into the final week of the regular season.

Coupeville hosts Northwest 2B/1B League leader La Conner next Tuesday, Feb. 7 on Senior Night, then travels to Friday Harbor Feb. 10.

Two of those three teams advance to the bi-district playoffs, which are Feb. 13-15 at Coupeville High School.

La Conner is currently 2-0 in the three-team round robin of 2B schools, with the Wolves at 1-1, and Friday Harbor 0-2.

The #1 team from District 1 (Coupeville’s district) opens the playoffs against the #2 team from District 2, with the #2 squad from D-1 facing the #1 group from D-2 in loser-out games.

If things in D-1 hold through the final week, that means La Conner would face Northwest Christian (Lacey), while Coupeville and Auburn Adventist would reunite in the other game.

The winners Feb. 13 return to CHS Feb. 15 to play for the bi-district title and a trip to the state tourney.

If Thursday’s game was a playoff preview, Wolf players have to feel pretty good about things, as they dominated Auburn from opening tip to final buzzer.

Lyla Stuurmans slipped a free throw through the net to open the scoring, and Coupeville had a lead it would never relinquish.

Like never, ever.

Hitting the boards hard and playing a brisk game of “give me the dang ball or die!” on defense, the feisty Wolves bolted out to an 8-2 lead after one quarter of play and never looked back.

And, if 8-2 doesn’t sound like a huge lead, it still felt like it, as Coupeville rarely let Auburn get anywhere close enough to the hoop to launch a shot in the early going.

If a whole bunch of Wolf shots hadn’t taken weird spins off the glass or popped backwards off an unforgiving rim, they would have been up by a solid 20+ points, instead of just six.

The baskets started falling at a more-satisfying pace in the second quarter, from Katie Marti slapping home a runner off of an Alita Blouin dish, to Marti returning the favor, feeding Ryanne Knoblich for a breakaway bucket.

Blouin splashed home a three-ball right before the buzzer, sending CHS to the halftime break up 21-7, before Coupeville really got going in the third quarter.

Or, more specifically, Knoblich strode out onto the floor, screamed “Ain’t no one in this joint can stop me!” and went on a tear.

Sure, it’s possible I’m putting words in her mouth, but the Wolf senior was most certainly a savage in the second half, brutalizing any defender who dared to (meekly) step to her.

Barreling through the paint, flinging bodies in all directions, Knoblich knocked down nine of her game-high 11 points in the third, with six of those points coming courtesy offensive rebounds.

The best one was the one where she slammed two hands on the ball, ripped the ball loose from an Auburn player’s less-than-sturdy grip and sent the Falcon sprawling to the hardwood.

When Knoblich wasn’t channeling Dennis Rodman on the boards, Wolf point guard Maddie Georges was flipping note-perfect passes left, right, and every direction, setting up her teammates for easy buckets.

Don’t mess with Maddie Georges, cause you’ll lose. (Bailey Thule photo)

One Georges pass in the third quarter went to Knoblich, one went to Marti, and a third found the waiting fingers of Madison McMillan, as Georges shredded the Falcon defense at every opportunity.

Up 36-9 heading into the fourth, Coupeville pushed the margin all the way out to 40-12 before Auburn salvaged some self-respect by closing the game on a 9-2 push.

Knoblich’s 11 points helped her achieve a personal milestone, as she cracked the 100-point club and now sits with 101 for her varsity career.

Marti dropped in a season-high 10 points in support, while Blouin (9), McMillan (4), Mia Farris (2), Gwen Gustafson (2), Carolyn Lhamon (2), Stuurmans (1), and Georges (1) also scored.

Jada Heaton and Skylar Parker brought hustle to their work on the defensive end of the floor, as all 11 girls on the Wolf varsity roster saw floor time.

 

No JV Game:

Auburn only has one girls’ team, so Coupeville’s second unit had the night off.

The Wolf young guns, who are 6-8 on the season, close their season next week with games against La Conner and Friday Harbor.

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