Heidi Meyers and the Coupeville JV girls are 5-2 after thumping Cedar Park Christian Tuesday night. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
This was a good ol’ beat-down.
Introduce balanced scoring. Add in a ball-hawking, lock-down defense. Then let the bodies hit the floor.
Controlling the game from opening tip to final bucket Tuesday, the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball team drilled visiting Cedar Park Christian.
At 39-23, with the visitors trimming five points off the deficit in the final moments, the score might not immediately jump out to you as a rout.
But it most assuredly was.
Now 2-0 in North Sound Conference play, 5-2 overall, the JV girls were methodical and ruthless against their private school rivals.
The Wolves jumped on the board quickly, with Alita Blouin and Ella Colwell running a note-perfect give-and-go in which The Assassin slashed through the defense like a living machete carving her way through the jungle underbrush.
Very next play, and almost a repeat, with Colwell delivering a perfectly-placed pass, and Blouin crashing to the hoop for another bucket.
The only difference in the plays, on round two, Blouin knocked her defender onto the floor as she slashed by, but did it so confidently the ref just nodded, as if to silently say, “I see you. I fear you. I got nothin’ to say on the matter.”
Playing with confidence, the Wolves jumped all over CPC on defense in the early going, turning a game-opening 8-0 run into an 18-6 lead by the half.
The Eagles got few shots off in the first half, with Morgan Stevens ripping balls loose, Colwell dominating in the paint, and the trio of Blouin, Ryanne Knoblich, and Gwen Gustafson harassing rival ballhandlers into frequent turnovers.
Cedar Park finally got on the scoreboard, but it took the visitors six minutes plus to do so.
And, as soon as the Eagles found a brief spark of life, the Wolves savaged all their hopes and dreams.
Coupeville kicked off a 10-2 run in the second quarter with a play in which three different Wolves meshed their individual talents for the good of the team.
Colwell yanked down a rebound, pivoted and hit Blouin, who promptly took a step and launched a long pass which carried over the heads of the scrambling defenders and dropped onto Gustafson’s finger tips.
Weaving through two final Eagles, Gustafson slapped home the layup, then later came back around to pull off almost the same play, but this time off of a Knoblich half-court heave.
Not every Wolf scored, but every one on the floor contributed, whether it was Claire Mayne and Heidi Meyers scrambling on defense, or Natalie Castano and Jessenia Camarena getting physical with the over-matched Eagles.
Castano delivered a hearty hip check which planted a CPC player into the third row of the bleachers, while Camarena rose up above the masses to soundly reject an Eagle shot and bring a smile to coach Megan Smith’s face.
CHS put the game on ice in the third quarter, closing the frame with an 11-2 surge in which Knoblich and Colwell combined for nine points.
Both Wolves picked up their buckets by going hard to the hoop and daring Cedar Park to stop them.
Spoiler alert: the Eagles didn’t have a prayer of doing so.
Knoblich’s best score came on a ferocious drive up the middle of the lane, where she banged home the bucket while absorbing multiple blows which awarded her an ensuing free throw, as well.
Colwell stood tall all game, closing the third and fourth quarters with baskets on which she simply overpowered shorter players down low, abusing them to the delight of her vocal fan club.
The Wolf sophomore center finished with a game-high 10 points, while Gustafson (9), Knoblich (8), Blouin (7), Camarena (3), and Stevens (2) all joined in on the offensive explosion.
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