CMS 8th grader Hannah Davidson, seen here during practice, spent most of Thursday trying to deflect constant elbows to the face, chest and back. (John Fisken photo)
It was a weird afternoon all around.
Take one fairly physical visiting team, toss in a plot twist on how long a game is, then liberally sprinkle with two refs who seemed to have little understanding of their job, and it all added up Thursday to one big pain in the rear for Coupeville.
By the time things were done, both of its middle school girls’ basketball squads had suffered their first losses of the season, and its coaches and fans were left with a mixture of puzzlement and unhappiness etched on their faces.
In the opener, the Wolf 7th graders raced out to an eight-point lead midway through the second quarter, before fouls stripped them of their best inside presence.
With Morgan Pease planted on the bench for the final five minutes of the first half — which turned out to to be the final five minutes of the game (more on that later) — Coupeville watched in horror as Forks sliced into the paint repeatedly, closing the game on a 10-0 run to nail down a 19-16 victory.
If that was rough, the nightcap was worse, as the refs went from bad to ridiculous, causing normally restrained CMS coach Bob Martin to virtually implode as Forks smashed the Wolf 8th graders (in the face, repeatedly) en route to a 49-25 romp.
The losses left both Wolf squads at 2-1 on the season.
Thursday’s opener was set up to be a shorter-than-normal affair, as Forks claimed to have just five 7th graders.
Having agreed to cut the game in half, the Wolves stormed out to an early lead, and held it for most of the half.
Now, when Forks ran a sub in early in the first quarter (presumably an 8th grader), it was obvious their players wouldn’t have had to play the entire 32 minutes if the game was normal length.
Still, that was small potatoes compared to two refs who combined a lack of staying on top of the game (“Wait, what, they’re shooting free throws? Who’s shooting free throws?”) with a flair for ignoring some brutal collisions while working their whistles overtime on petty infractions.
Even with all that going on, Coupeville stretched its lead out to 14-6 when Genna Wright banked home a shot while clearing out the paint the way (elbow-swinging) older sister Sarah likely taught her.
Forks pulled off a three-point play the hard way to slice away at the lead, before Chelsea Prescott immediately answered.
Taking an in-bounds pass from Mollie Bailey, the Wolves leading scorer dropped in her final bucket of the half, giving her a game-high 10 (she’s averaging 18.4 ppg over the 2.5 games played) and pushing the lead back to 16-9.
Then came a string of foul calls on the Wolves, especially Pease, while on the other end, the Wolves couldn’t buy a break.
The most glaring example: Prescott, in the air, with a shot leaving her hands, was hammered on the upraised wrists, yet the refs gave the ball to CMS on the side, and didn’t send the Wolves to the line to shoot.
Given new life, and with the refs breath the wind beneath their wings, Forks claimed their first lead of the game on a pair of free-throws.
Then they iced the game with a put-back off of a rebound (on a play in which the Wolf who originally had the ball was clocked in the back of the head, causing her to cough it up).
As confused fans watched the two teams go down the handshake line instead of head to the locker room for halftime, the 8th graders took the floor and the refs recharged by making a silent pact to get worse. Much worse.
The nightcap featured one play over and over (and over again) — Wolf post player Hannah Davidson being smacked.
In the head. On the shoulders. In the chest. Pretty much anywhere the Forks defenders could get away with it.
Oh right, on this night they could get away with it anywhere…
At the half, Martin and 7th grade coach Ryan King had an animated three-minute-plus discussion with the refs that started at one end of the court and ended at the other.
Unfortunately (for me, at least), my life-long dream of seeing an ejection in a middle school game was for naught as both CMS coaches are smart, restrained guys who made their points, expressed their displeasure, but refused to go all Bobby Knight.
I tip my hat to the Wolf coaches, cause they handled the situation better than most.
Battered, knocked around and poked to death, the Wolves rallied a bit and got back what they could.
Scout Smith got back on defense, planted herself for a good 10 seconds, then got rocked by a Forks girl who, on the move, blasted the slender Wolf point guard hard enough the thunk was heard across the street by grocery store shoppers.
No foul.
So the scrappy one picked herself up, shot up the floor, took a pass and banked home a three-ball from the top, pausing for just a millisecond to do a little happy (and sore) dance.
Smith later sank another trey on her way to a team-high eight, while Davidson and Avalon Renninger each knocked down six.
Maya Toomey-Stout popped for five to round out the CMS attack.
