Coupeville Sports

Katrina McGranahan prepares for the opening tip in a 7th grade varsity game. Watching her are teammates Sage Renninger (14) and Payton Aparicio (4).

Wolf coach Sarah Stuurmans imparts some wisdom.

      McGranahan goes hard to the hoop, while Mia Littlejohn (21), Aparicio (top left) and Mckenzie Meyer (23) trail the play.

Wolf domination.

Basketball is not done just yet!

As spring sports teams cap their first week of practice today, Coupeville Middle School girls’ basketball plays on.

The Wolves have four games remaining over the next two weeks, with home games Monday, March 4 against King’s (3 PM, middle school gym) and Wednesday, March 13 against Langley (2 PM, high school gym.)

To carry you through the weekend, we offer four photos from Justine McGranahan, one of the proud moms who are in the gyms for every game.

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Skyler Lawrence, the next great Wolf basketball star. (Amy King photos)

Don’t let Valen Trujillo’s smile fool you. She will body-slam a girl.

Bree Daigneault basks in the glow of scoring on a beautiful bucket. (Amy Briscoe photos)

Tiffany Briscoe fires up a free-throw.

These Wolves are a feisty bunch.

With Valen Trujillo body-slamming everyone she could get her hands on and Skyler Lawrence playing like a force of nature in the paint, the Coupeville Middle School 8th grade varsity girls’ basketball squad backhanded visiting Lakewood Wednesday.

By the time they had used an 11-6 fourth quarter run to seal the deal on a hard-fought 21-17 win, Coupeville had sent at least one opposing player running out of the gym crying and may have psychologically scarred the Cougars for years.

Excellent.

Next year’s Coupeville High School girls’ basketball tryouts are going to be a battle royale.

With six seniors departing, a huge chunk of an extremely feisty Wolf JV squad, led by back alley brawlers Kacie Kiel and McKayla Bailey, will look to step up. Joining them will be this year’s 8th graders, a group of ball-hawks who hit the boards, the floor, and, sometimes, their opponents’ faces, with a refreshing intensity.

Trujillo, who twice ripped balls out of player’s hands with such force she lifted the Lakewood player off the ground, is the enforcer, a relentless defender who drives people batty, then strolls away with a small smile on her lips.

Backing her up are the bruisers, post players Lawrence and Tiffany Briscoe, who dominate the paint like they paid for it.

Lawrence was everywhere Wednesday, hauling in every rebound that came anywhere remotely close to her, then busting her rear up the court, getting out and rumbling on the break. Also showing a soft touch, she popped for six of her game-high 13 points in the deciding fourth-quarter surge, then closed things out with two distinctive plays.

First she suddenly abandoned her dependable short jump shot and whipped the ball off the rim like a shot put, banking it off the glass to push Coupeville’s lead to 18-15. Then she suddenly reversed gears and picked the pocket of a speedy guard trying to blow past her at mid-court, setting up Mattea Miller for a three-point play to clinch the win.

With dependable outside gunners Jae LeVine and Carlie Rosenkrance in a rare shooting funk, the Wolves trailed for most of the first three quarters. But their ferocious defense kept things close, before back-to-back buckets from Lawrence tied the game at 10 with under a minute to play in the third.

Feasting on the tears of the Cougars — one Lakewood player dissolved after being called for an intentional foul, while another tried to pile-drive Trujillo’s face through the floor — Coupeville turned up the intensity to an even higher level in the fourth quarter.

A free throw from Lauren Grove kicked things off, then Lawrence and Miller went to work and the rest was a sprint to the celebration at the end.

The future of Wolf basketball? It’s coming and it’s going to beat you black and blue.

The rest of the night:

The other three games weren’t as pleasant, as the 7th grade JV fell 28-4 (Brittany SassPowers and Kameryn St. Onge scored), the 7th grade varsity was bounced 34-6 (Mia Littlejohn, Katrina McGranahan and Emily Rose scored) and the the 8th grade JV lost 17-4 (Bree Daigneault and Robin Cedillo scored).

Still, there were some highlights. The Lakewood 7th grade varsity has destroyed its opponents this season, and Coupeville held it to a season-low in points and was complimented by the Cougar coach for still coming after his team hard in the final moments of the game.

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Kyla Briscoe (left) and Wolf hoops teammate Hope Lodell.

“There is nothing more disappointing as a coach when a win is so close but just falls out of reach.”

That was the sentiment Sarah Stuurmans was left with Monday, after her Coupeville Middle School 7th grade girls’ basketball squad failed to hold on to a five-point lead with three minutes to play at Northshore. Killed by a rash of turnovers, the Wolves watched as a 23-18 lead slipped away, ending in a 26-23 loss.

“Turnovers really killed us today and most of the mistakes are coming from a lack of game time experience,” Stuurmans said. “I can tell that the game is coming at the girls so fast. With some playing experience and time on the court, the game will start to slow down for them so they can make better decisions with the ball.”

Coupeville came out aggressively on defense, with Katrina McGranahan and Sage Renninger pounding the boards.

Meanwhile, Mia Littlejohn paced the Wolves on offense, hitting for a game-high 12, including several nice drives to the hoop and a long put-back for three.

Kyla Briscoe banged home “two nice jumpers in the short corner off rebounds” on her way to six points, while McGranahan popped for three and Payton Aparicio tossed in a bucket off a “great inbounds pass.”

The Wolves play their next two games at home, with Lakewood coming to the Island Wednesday, Feb. 27, followed by King’s on Monday, March 4.

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           Mia Littlejohn destroys defenses like she eats her food — like a wild woman. (Melissa Losey photo)

Mia Littlejohn was so on fire Wednesday, not even the referees could put out her flame.

They tried, calling a technical foul on the Coupeville Middle School 7th grader for the horrible crime of stealing the ball away from a Granite Falls player as she crossed mid-court.

In the ultra-sensitive world of middle school hoops, teams aren’t allowed to press in the back-court when they’re up by 10 or more (because heaven forbid they actually get prepared for high school basketball…). Since the visiting Tiger player had only one foot across the line when Littlejohn picked her pocket, out came the whistle to a hail of laughs from local fans.

It was just about the only time anything slowed down the Wolves, as they romped to victories at both the 7th and 8th grade levels.

“It always helps to get a win against Granite Falls because the rest of the league is really strong,” said Wolf 7th grade coach Sarah Stuurmans. “Lakewood, King’s and Northshore typically have strong teams and Sultan is always a wild card.

“So this is a big boost for us,” she added. “Luckily we get to play them twice!”

By the time the rematch rolls around, the Tigers may have recovered from the shredding Littlejohn gave them. Not counting her momentary run-in with the refs, she made off with an astonishing nine steals on the afternoon.

“Mia was so amazing today,” Stuurmans said. “She really was pulling out all the stops with a great crossover and even doing a between the legs move that got her free of her defender.”

Her primary partners in crime were Sage Renninger (five steals) and Katrina McGranahan (nine rebounds and two blocked shots).

With the defense sparking numerous fast-break opportunities for Coupeville, the Wolves were able to fire up shot after shot against their overwhelmed opponent.

“Payton (Aparicio), Kyla (Briscoe,) Lauren (Rose) and McKenzie (Meyer) were great running the court and taking the open shots on the wing,” Stuurmans said. “Not all going in, but just sooooo glad that they are shooting!!!”

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