1A playoffs | Coupeville Sports

Posts Tagged ‘1A playoffs’

And that’s called kickin’ your butt!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged 1A playoffs, Basketball, CHS Wolves, John Fisken photos, Makana Stone, playoff win on February 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone (middle) is NOT letting go of that rebound. (John Fisken photos)

Kacie Kiel, always smiling, even in the heat of battle.

Julia Myers goes hard to the hoop.

Amanda Fabrizi, who scored a game-high 18, pushes the ball.

McKayla Bailey stuns her defender with the power of the green shoes.

Myers, AKA “Elbows,” being the baddest badass in all of Badassdom. So, a normal day for her.

Carlie Rosenkrance: “Run! Run for your life!! ‘Elbows’ is killin’ folks!!!”

They wanted it more.

When it came down to it, the young women on the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball team had to win, needed to win, were willing to hit the floor harder, sacrifice their bodies more and fight a second or two longer than Meridian was Thursday night.

And all the effort, all the bumps, bruises and floor burns, the elbows to the ribs, the adrenaline rushes?

In the end, they paid off in a 42-41 win, the first playoff victory for the Wolves in at least five seasons.

Coupeville heads to Blaine Friday for a loser-out, winner-to-tri-districts game on Valentine’s Day.

Win or lose, the nine girls who played Thursday, and the two who were enthusiastic cheerleaders while being forced to sit on the bench in street clothes due to injury and illness, will always have that one bright, shining night to remember.

They came, they saw, they kicked some fanny. They’ll never forget that.

For more photos, head over to:

http://www.cascadeathletics.com/index.php?act=view_gallery&gallery=5576&league=2&page_name=photo_store&school=0&school_year=2013-14&sport=0

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Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs!!

Posted in Fashionable Fans, Girls Basketball, tagged 1A playoffs, Basketball, CHS Wolves, fans waving signs, John Fisken photos on February 14, 2014| 1 Comment »

Colin Belliveau leads the charge. (John Fisken photos)

The Kacie Kiel fan club chimes in.

Former Wolf superstar Lexie Black, who still holds the record for most blocked shots in a 1A state playoff game, was on hand to witness the win.

Former Wolf superstar Lexie Black, who still holds the record for most blocked shots in a 1A state tournament game, was on hand to witness the win.

Wynter Thorne’s rooting section had a Boston accent.

CHS soccer sensation Micky LeVine split her loyalties between Julia Myers (12) and Kacie Kiel (20).

Freshman Gabe Wynn hails senior Breeanna Messner.

Wolf coach David King gets a shout-out.

“Psst … hey ref. See my sign? They like me more than you. Yeah, put that in your fancy whistle and blow on it…”

They were loud and they were proud.

With many of them waving homemade signs, Coupeville High School students rocked the gym Thursday night, willing on their girl’s basketball team to its first playoff win in at least five seasons.

They were creative. They were inspired. And, most of all, they brought both the noise and the funk back to the CHS gym.

Wolf fans, hear them roar.

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Still alive!!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged 1A playoffs, Amanda Fabrizi, Basketball, CHS Wolves, Julia Myers, Meridian on February 13, 2014| 1 Comment »

Amanda Fabrizi (right) gets her pregame good luck hug from team manager Jae LeVine. It worked, to the tune of 18 points. (John Fisken photos)

Wolf coach David King (in red) remains the only calm person in the gym. (John Fisken photos)

Wolf coach David King (in red) remains the only calm person in the gym as Julia Myers hits what would be the winning free throw.

And then they all lost their freakin’ minds.

When it was darkest Thursday night, when the season seemed to be slipping away, Amanda Fabrizi refused to let her high school basketball career end.

With her Coupeville girls’ hoops squad trailing by eight in the third quarter and momentum swinging wildly in favor of visiting Meridian, it would have been easy for the Wolf senior to give in, give up.

But Fabrizi has never quit on a basketball court, ever.

Which is why CHS came roaring back to beat the Trojans 42-41, carried by Fabrizi’s 18 points, to capture its first 1A district playoff win in at least five seasons.

Julia Myers iced the game, ripping a rebound out of an opposing player’s hands while being hammered, then calmly swishing a free throw with 9.9 seconds to play to break the game’s final tie.

But she never would have had her chance to be the heroine if Fabrizi hadn’t pulled the Wolves on her back.

And she did, drilling back-to-back shots — a high, arcing three-point bomb and a tough jumper with three girls in her face — sparking an 11-0 run that turned a 30-22 deficit into a 33-30 lead.

With Makana Stone tossing in a pair of buckets and freshman Carlie Rosenkrance hitting a jumper from the top of the key off of a brilliant pass from Breeanna Messner, Coupeville looked dominant for a four-minute run.

With the losing team being eliminated, Meridian wasn’t ready to roll over, however, and the Trojans fought back, setting up a knockdown brawl in the fourth.

First Coupeville surged to a four-point lead, on buckets from Stone and Fabrizi, then Meridian retook the lead at 38-37.

Back came Coupeville as Kacie Kiel wrested a ball free on the offensive boards and roared back up for her only bucket of the night, followed by Fabrizi picking the pocket of a Meridian ball-handler and racing in for a breakaway layin.

Up 41-38, it was over. Or was it?

After netting a free throw, Meridian forced a turnover on an inbounds pass and got their own breakaway to tie things at 41.

Worse, the girl flying to the hoop was fouled, setting her up for a three-point play the hard way with 27 ticks on the clock.

With CHS fans doing their best 12th Man impression and creating a sonic boom inside the gym, Meridian missed the free-throw, their 16th miss at the charity stripe on the night.

Fabrizi had a chance to reclaim the lead for Coupeville, but both of her free throws with 11.1 seconds to play rolled around and rimmed out at the very last moment.

Enter Myers, who, as she has done all season, simply wanted the rebound more than the girl on the other team reaching for the ball. Cleanly wrestling away the carom, the Wolf junior hunkered down and let herself get smacked, then hit the biggest free throw of her life.

Even then, things weren’t completely done, as Meridian managed to get two wild shots off at the end.

It wasn’t to be, though, and the Wolf students in the bleachers charged the floor, setting off a giddy celebration with their classmates who had just pulled off the biggest win in recent CHS girls’ basketball history.

It was a win accomplished without two starters, as junior Hailey Hammer (ankle injury) was joined in street clothes by junior Madeline Strasburg, who had been battling a high fever.

The hope is Strasburg will be back in uniform when Coupeville (10-12) travels to Blaine Friday for another loser-out playoff game.

The Borderites lost 55-26 to King’s Thursday.

The winner of the Coupeville/Blaine game is guaranteed a tri-districts berth and will play the winner of Mount Baker/Nooksack Valley Saturday on a neutral court at Mountlake Terrace High School for seeding.

Fabrizi (18) and Stone (12) combined to score 30 of Coupeville’s 42 Thursday, while Messner (3), Myers (3), Kiel (2), Rosenkrance (2) and Monica Vidoni (2) all chipped in.

Vidoni and Messner both scored off of big offensive rebounds, as the Wolves fought hard on the boards with a tough-nosed Meridian squad.

McKayla Bailey and Wynter Thorne didn’t score, but put in quality minutes off the bench, playing tough on defense and helping handle the ball smartly under considerable pressure.

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Win or go home!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged 1A playoffs, Amanda Fabrizi, Basketball, Breeanna Messner, CHS Wolves, Langley, Meridian, middle school on February 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Plotting strategy on the Wolf bench. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

Captains Madeline Strasburg (left) and Breeanna Messner share a moment.

Wolf senior Amanda Fabrizi will get at least one more game on her home floor. (John Fisken photos)

Wynter Thorne is part of a Wolf bench that has come on strong in the second half of the season.

Coupeville Middle School hoops stars kick off their season today, as well. (Amy Briscoe photo)

Coupeville Middle School hoops stars like Hope Lodell (green hat) and Kyla Briscoe (right) kick off their season today, as well. (Amy Briscoe photo)

Lace the sneakers up nice and tight.

When the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball team hosts Meridian tonight (7 PM tip) in a loser-out 1A district playoff game, one thing is for certain — someone’s season ends.

The Wolves (9-12) and visiting Trojans (4-17) will be fighting to stay alive, with the winner advancing to play Friday against the loser from a game between King’s and Blaine.

The winner Friday is guaranteed a spot at tri-districts and will play Saturday on a neutral court at Mountlake Terrace High School in the district tourney’s 3rd/4th place game.

Some quick facts:

*This will likely be the final home basketball game for Wolf seniors Amanda Fabrizi and Breeanna Messner, though there is an outside shot CHS could get a home game if it reaches tri-districts.

*Coupeville and Meridian met in a non-conference game back on Dec. 7. The Wolves, behind 13 points from Fabrizi, used a 15-2 run to break open that game, holding on for a 46-34 win, their first victory of the then-young season.

*Meridian was blown out 59-7 by Lynden Christian in its opening district playoff game, while Coupeville had the smallest margin of loss (10 points) of the four teams to lose their first game.

*If you want to have a really, really flat rear, you can watch basketball most of Thursday. The Coupeville Middle School girls’ basketball squads kicks off their eight-game season by hosting Langley.

Tip off for those games (7th and 8th JV and varsity) is 3 PM in the CMS gym, and there is no charge.

*Since this is a district playoff game, ticket prices for the high school game are altered.

They are $7.00 for adults or students without an ASB, $5.00 for children/seniors/students with a valid ASB.

*For those worried about The Fun Police, don’t be. What are they going to do? Ban you from home basketball games for the rest of the season?

Be loud. Be proud. Give the Wolf girls a true home court advantage. They deserve nothing less.

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Playoffs? We’re talking about playoffs!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged 1A playoffs, Amanda Fabrizi, Basketball, black eye, South Whidbey lost on January 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Madeline Strasburg was the only Wolf to hit two free throws in one trip to the charity stripe Friday, as an 11-of-29 performance there cost CHS a win. (John Fisken photo)

Madeline Strasburg was the only Wolf to consistently hit her free throws Friday, as an 11-of-29 performance at the charity stripe cost CHS a win. (John Fisken photo)

It’s official.

And while it didn’t happen exactly the way the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball team would have wanted — with a win over 2A Sultan at home Friday night — it did, eventually, happen.

The Wolves are playoff bound.

A hail of fourth-quarter three-point bombs from the Turks, and 18 missed free throws by the Wolves, cost Coupeville, as a fast start trickled away in a gut-wrenching 42-39 loss.

But, the defeat, which dropped the Wolves to 8-9 overall, 4-7 in Cascade Conference play, was softened by the news South Whidbey fell 47-31 to visiting Lakewood.

The Falcons dropped to 1-10 in league play, leaving Coupeville three games up with three to play in the race for the #2 seed from their league heading into the 1A district playoffs.

Since the Wolves swept South Whidbey and own the tie-breaker, game over, man, game over.

Coupeville will host the #3 seed from the Northwest Conference (currently Mount Baker) Tuesday, Feb. 11 in the opener of the double-elimination tourney.

Four of the eight teams playing (King’s is the #1 seed from the Cascade Conference, while the NWC sends six teams) will advance to Tri-Districts.

With the postseason locked into place, the Wolves can use their final three regular season games (they travel to ATM Feb. 4, host Granite Falls for Senior Night Feb. 7 and travel to King’s Feb. 8) to fine-tune their game and correct mistakes.

Nothing looms larger right now than the team-wide inability to hit a shot from the charity stripe.

Friday night, Coupeville and Sultan each made 11 free throws. But, since Sultan is a very “hands-on” team and tends to get called for its fair share of fouls, the Wolves had 29 attempts to Sultan’s 17.

Coupeville missed its first seven free throws before Breeanna Messner slid one through the hoop, and only one player, Madeline Strasburg, was able to hit two free throws in one trip to the stripe. She did it twice, draining five of Coupeville’s 11 successful free throws.

In a back-and-forth, hard-fought affair where the Wolves led in the fourth quarter, his team’s inability to convert its freebies haunted CHS coach David King after the game.

“I told the girls, we make four of those free throws, four, and we win this game,” King said. “We have to get better at this.”

Coupeville opened the game on a tear, even while clanging its free-throws, bolting out to an 8-1 lead with four different players scoring.

Messner banked home the game’s first basket on a shot that lingered on the rim for a day and a half before flopping through the net, then Strasburg, Makana Stone and Julia Myers all knocked home quick buckets.

Sultan fought its way back into the game, but Amanda Fabrizi staked the Wolves to an 11-10 lead with a dazzling driving layin.

The senior guard, who later took a nasty poke to the head that should leave her with a black eye Saturday morning, roared into the paint with her body twisted to protect the ball from a defender, only to throw down a sweeping hook off the glass at the last second.

The Wolves made several attempts to pull away in the second and third, getting the lead up to six, only to have the plucky Turks whittle the score back down.

A Sultan team that hadn’t hit a three all game got hot from behind the arc in the fourth, raining down three daggers straight into the heart of Wolf Nation.

Suddenly down by five, it was Coupeville’s turn to rally, with a 5-2 run pulling them within 39-37.

Unfortunately, the one Turk basket was as big a heart-breaker as possible, as a Sultan player picked up a loose ball, after Stone had soundly rejected her teammate’s shot, and drained a short jumper with one tick on the shot clock.

After the refs kept things interesting by calling back-to-back traveling violations — one on each team — Sultan drained three of its final four free throws, packaged around a missed field goal from Coupeville, to seal the come-from-behind win.

Stone banked in a rebound (one of about a million that she snagged) with a second to play to cap her team-high 10 point performance, but the clock ran out before Sultan in-bounded the ball, preventing the Wolves from fouling again.

Strasburg banged home nine in support of Stone, while Fabrizi netted six before taking a shot to the face in the fourth quarter. Kacie Kiel (5), Myers (4), Messner (4) and McKayla Bailey (1) rounded out the scorers.

Monica Vidoni and Wynter Thorne also saw court time for CHS, with Vidoni getting a big roar from the crowd when she grabbed a defensive rebound, then wrenched it free with conviction when a pesky Turk tried to take it away from her.

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