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Kellner singes net in finale

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, D'Youville College, Kailey Kellner, season finale on February 16, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Kailey Kellner tossed in eight points Saturday during the final game of her sophomore basketball season at D’Youville College. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Kailey Kellner reached the end of the season doing what she does best – putting the ball in the bucket.

The Coupeville grad, now a sophomore at D’Youville College in New York, rattled the rim for eight points Saturday as the Spartans celebrated Senior Night with an 82-67 win over visiting Franciscan University.

The victory lifts D’Youville’s final record to 7-11 in Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference action, 10-15 overall.

The top six teams in the league advance to the playoffs, but the Spartans missed out on a postseason berth by a single win.

D’Youville finished strongly, winning two of its final three games, but a 2-7 stretch right before that made it hard to climb any higher in the 10-team conference.

From the outside, one could argue Kellner should have gotten more playing time, since the turnaround started when the former Wolf was inserted into the starting lineup for the first time this season.

Saturday, the Spartans honored seniors Monica June, Darian Evans, and Jordan Smith, then put the game away in the second quarter.

After heading into the first break knotted up at 12-12, D’Youville went on a 21-12 run across the next 10 minutes.

Kellner tossed in four of her eight points during the surge, and from there it was easy street for the Spartans.

Coasting home for the win with 26-24 and 23-20 advantages across the final two quarters, D’Youville sent its seniors, and the fans, back out into the 29-degree Buffalo weather with smiles on their faces.

Filling up the stat sheet, Kellner snatched four rebounds and dealt out an assist to go along with her eight points.

For the season, if you believe the D’Youville stat page (and that’s questionable, as Kellner was dinged twice this season by score-keepers who gave credit for her baskets to others), Coupeville’s progeny finished with 76 points, 44 rebounds, 17 assists and four steals.

Her best stat was her free-throw shooting, where she knocked down 14 of 19 shots. That pencils out to 73.7%, and was among the best totals posted by a Spartan in 2018-2019.

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Whitman, Stone absorb tough road loss

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Makana Stone, Northwest Conference, University of Puget Sound, Whitman on February 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone (23) and her Whitman teammates will need everything to break right Saturday for them to host a playoff game. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Six days from now, the Whitman College women’s basketball team will be in the playoffs.

But, barring a last-second reversal of fortune Saturday, the Blues and former Coupeville star Makana Stone will start the postseason on the road.

Despite a strong second-half rally Friday, Whitman couldn’t quite make up for a poor first half, falling 60-55 to the University of Puget Sound.

The road loss, coming in the next-to-last regular season game, drops the Blues, 12-3 in Northwest Conference play, 18-6 overall, into a tie for second-place with UPS (12-3).

But, since the Loggers swept the season series, also winning 75-67 in Walla Walla Jan. 19, they hold the tiebreaker.

Unless Whitman beats Pacific Lutheran (7-8) Saturday and UPS falls to Whitworth (7-8), the Blues will be the #3 seed to the four-team NWC tourney.

League champ George Fox (15-1) hosts whichever 7-8 team — PLU, Whitworth or Linfield — emerges Saturday to claim the #4 seed, while #2 hosts #3.

The first round of the single-elimination tourney goes down Feb. 21, with the title game Feb. 23.

The tourney champ gets an automatic bid to the NCAA D-III national championships, while other NWC teams will sweat out the announcement of at-large teams.

Friday’s loss came down largely to one really bad five-minute-plus stretch in the second quarter.

Whitman led through much of the first quarter, and, even after finally losing the advantage, was still hanging tough down 21-16 with 6:20 to play in the first half.

Unfortunately for the Blues, their shooting touch promptly went into deep freeze, and Puget Sound took advantage.

Using a 14-0 tear over the next five minutes and 32 seconds, the Loggers turned a close game into a potential blowout.

Kaelan Shamseldin finally snapped the scoring drought, pulling off a three-point play the hard way, but her bucket and free throw could only trim the halftime deficit to 35-19.

The second half was a different story, as Whitman shaved away at the lead with 17-9 and 19-16 runs across the final two periods.

Stone drained a jumper to pull the Blues within four points late in the third quarter, then slipped a free throw through the net to slice the margin to 49-46 with a hair under four minutes to play in the game.

Puget Sound hung tough down the stretch, though.

Even with the league’s arguably-best player, Jamie Lange, held to just seven points, the Loggers found just enough offense to persevere.

Elizabeth Prewitt rattled the rim for a game-high 20, with seven of those points coming down the stretch, to pace UPS.

For Whitman, Mady Burdett scorched the nets for 18, and the lone Blues senior, Maegan Martin, notched a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Stone, who had to battle through foul trouble, finished with seven points, six rebounds, and an assist, while being restricted to just 13 minutes of floor time.

The former Wolf ace is sitting with 339 points, 192 rebounds, 40 assists, 25 steals, and 18 blocks for her junior campaign.

She’s shooting 144-276 from the field, and 50-65 from the line.

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Blouin, Knoblich shine on hardwood

Posted in Girls Basketball, Middle School, tagged Basketball, Brionna Blouin, CMS Wolves, King's, Ryanne Knoblich on February 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Ryanne Knoblich, seen with big bro Gavin, tossed in four points Thursday as Coupeville battled King’s. (Photo by Mariah Knoblich)

So, there’s two ways to look at what went down Thursday in the Coupeville Middle School gym.

In one scenario, we spend a lot of time chastising King’s for being, well, King’s.

A school which claimed it couldn’t field an 8th grade team this season, likely because a number of its players chose AAU or travel ball over school hoops, deliberately dodged Coupeville’s most-seasoned team.

So, while the Wolf 8th grade varsity sat idle, King’s sent one squad against the Wolf 7th graders, and then sent “the rest of its players” out to smack around Coupeville’s JV.

The Knights coach claimed her second team had few players with previous playing experience.

At which point, the off-screen narrator can solemnly be heard to intone … “She lied.”

While there might not have been any AAU-seasoned supernovas present, a surprising number of King’s “second squad” (we’ll say 97.9%) proved able to dribble with both hands, set screens, thread passes between defenders, and demonstrate polished shooting techniques.

All things most of Coupeville’s JV team, which features only one player with SWISH experience, is still trying to master.

So, rah-rah, King’s, take your 46-4 win in which you were still flinging up three-balls and aggressively going for steals in the final minute, and put it in your trophy case.

And next time, step up and play the team you should have been playing, the Wolf varsity squad that was eyeballing you from the stands.

Of course that won’t happen this season, as King’s refusal to play a real 8th grade schedule means the league’s planning went out the door in the week leading up to the season.

With a new master schedule in place, the Wolves and Knights only face once now, and not twice, and frankly, everyone is the better for it.

Coupeville’s 8th grade varsity, denied the chance to challenge private school power King’s, will instead play two games against Sultan, Granite Falls, and Lakewood, and three against South Whidbey.

All public schools willing to play straight-up and not hide behind fibs and roster shuffling.

Give credit to the Wolves JV, which played hard, to a woman, all the way, even while being wildly over-matched.

Ryanne Knoblich, a varsity/JV hybrid who was the only CMS player on the floor with non-school playing experience, scored all four of Coupeville’s points, and all on hard-earned free throws.

Adrian Burrows, Jessenia Camarena, Claire Mayne, Cristina McGrath, Melanie Navarro, Abigail Ramirez, Jessica Ross-McMahon, and Jordyn Rogers played with guts, and should be hailed for their effort.

Camarena and Rogers, in particular, spent much of their time diving and fighting for loose balls, while Burrows yanked down more than her share of rebounds.

The opening game of the day was much closer, as Coupeville came within a final shot of forcing overtime in a 21-19 loss.

The Wolves got contributions from everyone on the floor, but special attention has to be paid to the one-woman wrecking crew that goes by the name Brionna Blouin.

A night after scoring 14 in a season-opening win against Langley, Blouin splashed home all of Coupeville’s points, hitting a trio of three-balls, including a miracle buzzer-beater, before putting on a fourth-quarter show for the ages.

Staying on the court for the entire 28 minutes, while also bringing the ball up on virtually every play with her point guard on vacation, she even earned a nod of approval from take-no-guff lead ref Jim Shulock.

Behind their on-fire gunner, the Wolves twice came back from double-digit deficits.

After falling behind 10-0 to start the game, Blouin netted back-to-back three-balls to end the first quarter and send a surge through the CMS fans.

The first trey was your standard-issue pull-up shot fired on the move, and by standard, I mean standard for an NBA guard, maybe, but not for the other 99% of 7th graders out there.

Blouin, for a young player, already demonstrates an often uncanny ability to create a few inches between herself and her defender in a split second, then loft a high, arching shot.

Not that she needed to create space on the second shot, as King’s defenders were backpedaling as Coupeville raced the clock in a bid to get up court.

One eye monitoring the seconds tick away, the other looking to see if the CHS varsity players working the scorekeeper’s table were watching, Blouin got spectacular.

Pulling off not one, but two pump fakes, she slid under a King’s player, then calmly flicked the ball skyward.

At which point time stopped in the known universe, allowing all gathered to trace the flight of the ball as it rode the rainbow, skipped off the top of the glass, then settled through the net with a happy little sigh.

After that King’s started shadowing Blouin with more than one defender, which paid off with a 9-2 surge over the next two quarters.

Coupeville’s defense, led by strong work on the boards from Reese Wilkinson and Kayla Arnold, and hustle for loose balls by Allison Nastali and Skylar Parker, kept the Knights from getting red-hot, but a 19-8 deficit looked imposing heading into the fourth quarter.

Well, until Blouin went to work.

She pulled off a stop-n-pop jumper, slashed in for a layup, netted a sideline jumper, threw down a turnaround jumper in the paint, then nailed her final three-ball from the top of the arc.

King’s only answer to Blouin’s 11-point eruption was one single, solitary put-back off of an offensive rebound, but it stung for two reasons.

One, it came not on the first rebound, but on what felt like the 437th (reality says it was rebound #5 off the same offensive possession).

Secondly, it gave the Knights the two-point advantage they would need to hang on to the win.

With King’s relentlessly pressuring Blouin, Coupeville went to Parker for a game-tying shot, and she came very close to making it a reality.

Unfortunately, the basket turned unforgiving, letting the ball skid around the rim, before finally spitting it back out.

When King’s players went down the “good game, good game” line at the end of this one, they were saying the words with a fair amount of relief in their voices.

While Blouin captured a lot of attention, and rightfully so, her teammates worked extremely hard to help her get to where she was going.

Erica McGrath pulled down several rebounds and came close to knocking down her own three-ball, while Ava Mitten, Kaitlyn Leavell, and Desi Ramirez buzzed around, creating havoc on defense.

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Snow chills out, hoops heat up

Posted in Girls Basketball, Middle School, tagged Basketball, CMS Wolves, John Fisken photos, Nezi Keiper, Ryanne Knoblich on February 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville’s Nezi Keiper (with ball) battles down low with Langley’s Morgan Batchelor, while getting mugged from behind. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Carolyn Lhamon denies a Langley shot.

Gwen Gustafson remains calm in the eye of the storm, waiting for the play to develop.

Wolf fans come to a consensus. “The snow is melting! The snow is melting!!”

If you can’t see Maddie Georges’ eyes, you have no way of knowing which way she’s about to pass.

Ema Smith lays down the law. “The clock starts when I say it starts, Skippy.”

Helene Lhamon implores the Wolves to make a defensive stop. Spoiler alert: they did.

Ryanne Knoblich fires a pass into the key during Coupeville’s come-from-behind win.

Finally a break in the snow and ice.

That gave the Coupeville Middle School girls basketball teams a chance to play Wednesday, while also allowing paparazzi John Fisken to check and see if his cameras had unfrozen.

They had, and the pics above, which capture action from the 8th grade varsity game, are courtesy him.

To see everything Fisken shot, pop over to:

https://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Basketball-2018-2019-boys-and-girls/MSGBB-2019-02-13-vs-South-Whidbey/

And, when you go, remember any purchases help fund scholarships for CHS senior student/athletes.

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A to Z, they put the ball in the bucket

Posted in Basketball, tagged A to Z, Amanda Fabrizi, Basketball, CHS Wolves, Jeff Stone, scoring stats on February 13, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Tim Quenzer is the only player in Coupeville High School basketball history to score varsity points while repping a last name that starts with Q.

Kari Iverson stands alone.

There have been 147 seasons of basketball played at Coupeville High School – 102 by the boys and 45 by the girls, at least in the post-Title IX world – and, in that time, only one player with a last name starting with “I” has scored a point at the varsity level.

Iverson tossed in eight points across two seasons, scoring four in each of her two varsity seasons (1990-91 and 1991-92), to claim the honor.

She would have likely had more, but missed her senior season in 92-93 after a bad car accident.

That tidbit is just one of many I found as I wiled away some of my Snowmageddon time by going through basketball scoring records in a bid to discover who were the highest scoring players by last name.

Now, I will admit, my record-collecting isn’t finished … yet.

I have virtually complete scoring totals for 44 of the 45 seasons of girls basketball. The one to elude me, so far, is the debut team in 1974-1975.

The Whidbey News-Times of the day (shamefully) had nothing to say about that season, and the school’s yearbook has photos, but no scoring totals.

But I do have a roster, and there’s no “I” players to be found.

With boys basketball, I can claim to be on fairly solid ground with 69 of 102 seasons. And with the way records have generally been allowed to blow free in the breeze at CHS, that’s saying something.

As I piece things together, I have individual scoring totals for every season from 1954-1955 to today, but pre-’50s scoring marks have been tough to uncover.

Now, I can tell you Roy Armstrong topped Coupeville with 80 points during the 1924-1925 season, and Banky Fisher edged out Gaylord Stidham 44-41 for the 1939-1940 scoring title.

But, other than success with scattered seasons — the Bruzas brothers, Joe (71) and Stanley (48) combined to tally 119 of 186 points scored in 1926-1927, in case you were wondering — uncovering the early years of Wolf basketball remains my Raiders of the Lost Ark-style adventure.

If there’s a holy grail, it’s the 1953-1954 boys season.

The yearbook had a roster, but no scoring totals, preventing me from cementing the status of Jack Elzinga and Tom Sahli.

With Sahli, I know he scored 310 points in 1952-1953, but am missing his totals for 1951-1952 and 1953-1954.

Elzinga is even more tantalizing, as I know he rattled the rims for 337 in 1954-1955 and another 309 in 1955-1956.

That two-year total of 646 points puts “The Zinger” in 25th place on the all-time Wolf boys scoring chart, and yet, how high is he really?

Did he score 100 points in what I presume was his sophomore season? If so, he catapults up to #16. Or, if he notched 222 or more, he’s cracked the top 10.

Of course, being his first season on varsity, Elzinga’s scoring total might be much lower than his other two years. Even so, it’s frustrating to not be able to firmly place him in the pantheon.

But, for now, we go with what we have.

And what we have says there’s never been a CHS player, girls or boy, who scored at the varsity level while repping a last name starting with U or X.

There’s been one guy upholding the honor of Q, as Tim Quenzer scorched the nets for 202 points during the 1969-1970 campaign, but no Q girls.

Top it off with the odd twist of no boy with a last name starting with I, and no girl with one starting with N or Z.

The biggest surprise for me is N, but, maybe it shouldn’t have been, as only five boys — Ron Naddy, Frank Nelson, Dan Nieder, Bill Nienhuis, and Chad Nixon — check in on that side of the ledger.

Maybe N isn’t as common as I thought.

At the least, N, on the boys side, comes in ahead of Z (John Zimmerman and Denny, Jerry, and Larry Zylstra) and Y (Jim Yake, Curt and Tim Youderian).

Other factoids I found:

E and O are the only letters where the leading scorers are related.

O offers up the sister/brother combo of Kendra and Kramer O’Keefe (uncle Randy, who played when the family still went by Keefe, leads the K boys) while E gives us Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby and dad Wade Ellsworth.

Wade’s spot is hanging by a thread, though, as he’s a mere 13 points up on Elzinga (659-646), with “The Zinger’s” missing season still lurking out there somewhere in the mists of time.

Megan Smith and Bill Riley are the highest-scoring players who are NOT also the highest-scoring players with a last name starting with their letter.

Riley is #6 on the boys all-time chart with 934 points, but #4 Jeff Rhubottom (1012) edges him out for R bragging rights.

Smith (1042) sits even higher, at #4 for the girls program, but #3 Makana Stone (1158) is a rung above her, while also carrying an S last name.

Best letter to start your last name with if you want to be a top-10 career scorer? S.

Smith, Makana Stone, Jeff Stone (tied for #1), and Brad Sherman (#8) pull their initial highest, edging out B, which is brought to the dance by Mike Bagby (tied for #1), Zenovia Barron (#2), and Lexie Black (#8).

The most productive letter? K.

Brianne King (1549) and Randy Keefe (1088) combine for 2,637 points, topping the 2,407 flung up by B (Zenovia Barron – 1270 and Mike Bagby – 1137) and the 2295 offered by S (Makana Stone – 1158 and Jeff Stone – 1137).

And, last but certainly not least, is the tightest race, which played out among boys whose last names start with T.

Eight have broken 100, three have topped 200, but the title came down between a duo who hit for 300+.

Charlie Tessaro tossed in 93 points in 1984-1985, then led his squad with 235 the next season, finishing with 328 for his career.

Which I thought would be tops, but it wasn’t.

Aaron Trumbull never reached the heights Tessaro did in 85-86, but he benefited from being a rock-solid four-year varsity vet from 2011-2012 to 2014-2015.

The kind of player who did everything – rebound, defend, set screens for the big gunners – he also proved to be a solid backup scoring option.

From six points as a freshman, Trumbull jumped to 106 as a sophomore (#3 on the team), 70 as a junior, then 148 (#2 on the team) during his senior season.

His final basket gave him 330 points, edging Tessaro in the closest race I could find.

CHS career scoring leaders by last name:

A – Amanda Allmer (331), Mitch Aparicio (195)

B – Zenovia Barron (1270), Mike Bagby (1137)

C – Jen Canfield (497), Mike Criscuola (979)

D – Vanessa Davis (448), Randy Duggan (552)

E – Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby (892), Wade Ellsworth (659)

F – Amanda Fabrizi (299), Foster Faris (668)

G – Marlene Grasser (574), Arik Garthwaite (867)

H – Kristan Hurlburt (598), Hunter Hammer (755)

I – Kari Iverson (8), (no boy)

J – Annette Jameson (223), Bill Jarrell (855)