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Big rebounds, bigger win

February 21, 2020 by David Svien

CHS grad Makana Stone became the #2 rebounder in Whitman College women’s basketball history Friday night. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

It’s as close to a sure thing as possible.

Put Whitman College and Linfield College on the floor for a women’s basketball game, and the squad from Walla Walla is going to triumph.

Friday night was more of a great thing for the Blues, as Whitman got 18 points from Coupeville’s Makana Stone and hit its free throws down the stretch to capture a 74-65 win in its regular-season finale.

The former Wolf also hit a major milestone, moving into 2nd place on her school’s career rebounding chart.

The road victory, coming in front of a raucous crowd in McMinnville, Oregon, marked the 26th consecutive time Whitman has beaten its Northwest Conference foe.

The last time Linfield toppled Whitman came way back in 2007.

While keeping their domination of the Wildcats chugging along, the Blues capped a 15-1 tear through the NWC this season, and head into the playoffs at 23-2 overall, with an active 11-game win streak.

Whitman opens the four-team league postseason tourney next Thursday, February 27, when it hosts the #4 school in a loser-out game.

Several teams are still battling for that slot, though Linfield was eliminated from contention with Friday’s loss.

Win in the tourney semifinals, and the Blues host the NWC championship game Feb. 29 against either George Fox or Pacific, with an automatic bid to the NCAA D-III tourney up for grabs.

Wrapping the regular season, Whitman wasn’t flawless, but it was very good when it mattered most.

Stone dropped in eight of her 18 points in the fourth quarter, as the Blues surged to a 12-point lead, before giving a chunk of it back.

Desperate to keep its playoff hopes alive, Linfield carved the lead all the way back to 66-62 with a minute to play, but Whitman never blinked.

Instead, the Blues made the nets jump while all the players were standing still, hitting 8 of 10 free throws across the game’s final 58 seconds to ice the win.

Taylor Chambers (5), Mady Burdett (3), and Kaylie McCracken (2) all converted charity shots to shush the enthusiastic pro-Linfield crowd, capping a fourth quarter in which Whitman hit 14-16 from the line.

The game was close for much of the night, with Whitman clinging to a 17-15 lead after one quarter of play.

With Stone heating up in the second frame, slapping home her team’s first eight points, the Blues stretched the advantage out to 38-29 at the half, before carrying a 52-44 lead into the fourth quarter.

Even saddled with foul trouble, Coupeville’s ace came up big in crunch time, as Stone capped her scoring effort with a dagger of a pull-up jumper.

On the night, the CHS grad finished with 18 points, six rebounds, two assists, and two blocked shots, tying Burdett for team-high scoring honors.

Lily Gustafson chipped in with 11 points, while McCracken banked home 10 as Whitman put four players into double-digits scoring.

As she heads into her final collegiate playoff run, Stone sits with 398 points, 216 rebounds, 36 assists, 25 steals, and 25 blocks on the season.

She’s shooting 163-304 (53.6%) from the floor and 69-87 (79.3%) from the free throw line.

Already the #5 scorer in Whitman women’s basketball history with 1,325 career points (she’s 18 away from moving into 4th place), Stone is now the #2 rebounder for the program.

She passed Katie Rubenser (824) Friday, and, with 828 rebounds to her credit, trails just Jennifer McClure (902) on the all-time list.

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Wolves chomp Cougars

February 21, 2020 by David Svien

Brionna Blouin helped spark Coupeville’s top squad to a big win Thursday in Langley. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Gabriella Becktell and friends play three of their next four games at home.

Right back where they want to be.

A day after being swept in Sultan, the Coupeville Middle School girls basketball squads bounced right back into the winning column Thursday afternoon.

Facing off with their next-door neighbors in Langley, the Wolves won two of three games, ending their week on a positive note.

Now, after back-to-back road trips, CMS plays three of its next four at home, beginning next Wednesday, Feb. 26, when they welcome Lakewood to The Rock.

How Thursday played out:

 

Level 1:

Wham-bam.

Powered by the one-two scoring punch of Savina Wells and Lauren Marrs, who combined to net 29 points, the Wolves strolled to a 35-20 win.

The victory evens Coupeville’s season mark at 2-2.

CMS put the game away early, jumping out to a 9-2 lead at the first break, then pushing the margin to 19-2 after blanking Langley through the second frame.

From there, Coupeville stretched the lead to 31-10 heading into the fourth, before coasting home for the Island rivalry win.

Wells rang up a team-high 17 points, including an early three-ball and a 4-4 run at the free throw line in the second quarter.

The CMS 7th grader has piled up 63 points through her first four games, averaging just a whisper below 16 a night.

Her older running mate, Marrs, was Miss Consistency, banging away for 12 points with a variety of sweet moves, while Brionna Blouin (4) and Allison Nastali (2) rounded out the Wolf offensive attack.

Kaitlyn Leavell, Taylor Brotemarkle, Lyla Stuurmans, Skylar Parker, Mia Farris, Kayla Arnold, Desi Ramirez, Grey Peabody, Madison McMillan, and Reese Wilkinson also saw floor time as CMS was able to cycle through its full roster.

 

Level 2:

It was a nail-biter for 21 minutes, then Coupeville’s second squad pulled away to claim its first win of the season at 14-7.

The young Wolves are 1-2 headed into the Lakewood clash.

Scoring was at a premium for much of the game, with CMS netting just a single bucket in each of the first three quarters.

But while their offense was a bit muted, the Wolf defense was on point, blanking the host Cougars in both the second and third frames.

That allowed Coupeville to scrape its way back from an early 5-2 deficit, but the lead was as slim as possible at 6-5 heading into the fourth quarter.

That was when the Wolves started hitting on all cylinders, with Katie Marti, Parker, and Arnold all hitting key buckets down the stretch.

Marti outscored Langley by herself, finishing with a game-high eight points, with Wilkinson, Arnold, and Parker each chipping in with a basket apiece.

Also seeing solid floor time were Issabel Johnson, Jada Heaton, Peabody, Aby Wood, and Leavell.

 

Level 3:

Coupeville’s only loss came in the finale, as a still-developing squad fell 28-8.

Langley turned it on in the first and fourth quarters, dropping 10 points in each frame as it sent the Wolves to an 0-2 start on the season.

Heaton (4), Bryley Gilbert (2), and Aubrey Blitch (4) scored for CMS, with Alena Osborne, Shayla Town, Pamela Morrell, Kassidy Upchurch, and Gabriella Becktell also playing.

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Live, learn, lace ’em back up again

February 19, 2020 by David Svien

Lauren Marrs netted a three-ball Wednesday, scoring five points in a narrow loss at Sultan. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Aby Wood and friends get a chance to return to action almost immediately, with a trip Thursday to Langley.

Best thing is, they get to play again in less than 24 hours.

While Wednesday’s trip to Sultan didn’t go the way the Coupeville Middle School girls basketball squads wanted, the Wolves can flip the script right away.

CMS heads to Langley Thursday to face its next-door neighbors, and all three of its hoops teams will get to see hardcourt action.

Sultan only went two teams deep, forcing Coupeville’s #3 squad to sit out Wednesday’s trip.

How the day played out:

 

Team 1:

One more minute.

Coupeville stormed back from an early deficit, but ran out of time and fell 32-29 in a nail-biter.

The loss drops the Wolves to 1-2 on the season heading into their Island rivalry showdown.

After keeping the game knotted at 6-6 through one quarter of play, CMS ran into foul trouble, which kept some of its deadliest players locked to the bench for chunks of time.

Trailing by 10 headed into the fourth, the Wolves came out ferociously, carving most of the deficit away before the Turks barely escaped with the win.

Savina Wells got CMS within two points with 50 seconds to play, when she scorched the nets for her second three-ball of the fourth quarter.

But Sultan, with a little assistance from a home town ref who ignored a double-dribble and a travel on the same play, got a huge bucket in the waning moments to ice the game.

Middle school teams play seven-minute quarters, while high school squads go for eight minutes.

Give the Wolf young guns — four of their top eight players are just 7th graders — that extra 60 seconds, and things might have ended differently.

Those 7th graders accounted for 24 of Coupeville’s 29 points, with Wells (14), Lyla Stuurmans (8), and Madison McMillan (2) forming a dangerous trio.

Lauren Marrs upheld 8th grade honor by knocking down a three-ball en route to five points.

Also seeing floor time were Mia Farris, Allison Nastali, Brionna Blouin, and Desi Ramirez.

 

Team 2:

An ice-cold third quarter derailed the Wolves in a 26-14 loss.

Take away that one frame, when Coupeville was outscored 14-0, and the game ends in the win column for CMS.

But, we have to count all four quarters, so the Wolves fall to 0-2 on the season.

Coupeville came out strongly, getting buckets from Issabel Johnson, Taylor Brotemarkle, and Skylar Parker in the first quarter as it battled to a 6-6 tie.

With Reese Wilkinson heating up in the second frame, tossing in four of her team-high six points, the Wolves carried a 12-10 lead into the locker room.

Unfortunately, when they returned to the floor, they ran head long into a brutal full-court press which changed the flow of the game.

Wilkinson (6), Parker (4), Brotemarkle (2), and Johnson (2) carried the offensive load, while seven other Wolves saw floor time in the road game.

Jada Heaton, Kayla Arnold, Chloe Marzocca, Grey Peabody, Katie Marti, Aby Wood, and Kaitlyn Leavell all chipped in with hustle and hard work on the defensive end of the floor.

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A milestone here, a win there

February 18, 2020 by David Svien

Makana Stone is just the fifth Whitman College female hoops star to top 1,300 career points. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They like to live dangerously.

Drawing a rare Tuesday night game on the schedule, the Whitman College women’s basketball team had to go to an extra period, but kept alive its winning streak.

Holding off visiting Whitworth University 77-74 in overtime, thanks to big plays in crunch time by several players, including Coupeville’s Makana Stone, the Blues captured their 10th straight W.

Now 14-1 in North Sound Conference play, 22-2 overall, Whitman wraps its regular season Friday with a trip to McMinnville, Oregon to face Linfield College.

After that comes the NWC post-season tourney February 27-29, then a likely trip to the NCAA D-III national championship tournament in March.

Tuesday’s game pitted two teams in very different situations.

Whitman has already clinched the league title and the #1 seed to the four-team postseason tourney, while Whitworth is involved in a four-team battle for the #4 seed.

The first time the Pirates faced the Blues, they hung tough in an 84-79 loss. Tuesday, they took that a step further.

Trailing 64-60 late in the fourth, Whitworth went on a 7-0 run to claim the lead and push the Blues to the edge of defeat.

Playing in front of its home fans, Whitman answered, however, getting two free throws from Mady Burdett and another freebie from Kaelan Shamseldin to knot the game at 67-67.

With both teams unable to score over the final two-minutes-plus of regulation, that gave the fans free basketball, and overtime was a tense five-minute affair.

Whitworth clung to a 71-70 lead when Stone, playing with four fouls (after some questionable calls by refs missing their seeing-eye dogs), showed why she is a favorite to be named league MVP.

First, Coupeville’s ace rolled hard to the hoop, slipping her defender and slapping home a layup to give Whitman a lead it would not relinquish.

Then, standing strong on the other end of the floor as well, Stone rejected a Pirate shot, collecting her third block of the game and keeping Whitworth at bay.

A Lily Gustafson layup, off a superb entry pass from Burdett, staked Whitman to a 73-70 lead and the two squads traded free throws the rest of the way.

The biggest came from Blues guard Taylor Chambers, who calmly knocked down both of her charity shots with just four seconds to play, pushing the lead out to the final margin of 77-74.

Whitworth would have needed a miracle after that, and didn’t get it, as Whitman pulled off a note-perfect final defensive stand.

The wild win capped a back-and-forth game in which neither team could break free.

Whitman used a 7-2 surge to close the first quarter with a 14-11 lead, only to see Whitworth close the gap to 36-34 at the half.

The teams combined to shoot a red-hot 18-23 from the floor in the second frame, with Stone scoring Whitman’s final six points of the half on a variety of silky-smooth jumpers and quicksilver layups.

From there, the Blues regained a slim advantage at 49-46 exiting the third quarter, before Whitworth rallied in the fourth.

Kaylie McCracken came off the bench to lead Whitman with a game-high 20 points, while Stone snagged a game-high 12 rebounds to go with 14 points, three blocks, and an assist.

Burdett banked in 13 and Gustafson netted 11 as the Blues came with a well-balanced attack.

On the season, Stone sits with 380 points, 210 rebounds, 34 assists, 25 steals, and 23 blocks, while shooting 156-293 (53.2%) from the field and 65-83 (78.3%) at the free throw line.

The CHS grad, who has 1,307 career points and counting, became just the fifth Whitman women to top the 1,300-point barrier.

She reached the magic mark on her final bucket of the second quarter.

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CWLL preps for new season

February 17, 2020 by David Svien

A new season of Central Whidbey Little League action approaches. (Jackie Saia photo)

Spring approaches, but little league action will probably beat it in getting here.

Central Whidbey Little League hosts its second, and final, skills and registration camp this coming Saturday, February 22 from 10 AM-noon at the CHS gym.

The event is open to children ages 5-15 who live in Central Whidbey (Coupeville and Greenbank), and includes all age groups (T-Ball, baseball, and fastpitch softball).

Parents are encouraged to register their children at the league’s site — https://www.centralwhidbeylittleleague.com/ — or at the skills camp.

For Saturday’s event, players are asked to wear athletic clothing and “good gym shoes.”

It’s recommended they bring their baseball and softball gear, if they have it, though some will be provided for those in need.

The league also hosts its annual field work party Mar. 14, a time when the ball fields at Rhododendron Park (502 W. Patmore Rd.) will be primed for play.

Volunteers are welcome and needed.

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