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Posts Tagged ‘Basketball’

Stone rock-solid to the end!!

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, George Fox University, Makana Stone, season finale, Whitman on February 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone, seen here during her senior season at CHS, has been a dynamo on the college hardwood. (John Fisken photo)

Makana Stone would not go down without a fight.

The Coupeville grad scored her team’s final eight points Saturday, but not even her late-game heroics could save Whitman College in its regular season women’s basketball finale.

When teammate Mady Burdett’s three-ball at the buzzer bounced off the rim, the Blues fell 65-62, settling for third-place in the final Northwest Conference standings.

Whitman closes regular season play at 12-4 in league, 21-4 overall.

George Fox (13-3, 21-4), which avenged an earlier loss to the Blues, finish runner-ups behind Puget Sound (16-0, 24-1).

Those three teams, and fourth-place Lewis & Clark (9-7, 16-9), advance to the league tourney.

Whitman travels to Newberg, Oregon Thursday, Feb. 23 for an immediate rematch with George Fox.

Win that game and the Blues advance to the championship game Feb. 25, where they would play the winner of Puget Sound and Lewis & Clark.

Making her eighth start as a freshman, Stone threw down 11 points, snatched five rebounds and delivered two crushing blocks.

The rejections both came in the first quarter, as Whitman roared out to a 9-0 lead in the early going, before faltering a bit.

George Fox knotted the game at 18-18 after one quarter, and things remained tied 31-31 at the half.

A 22-18 third quarter run by the visitors was the difference, and the Bruins were still clinging to a 60-54 lead with 2:58 to play when Stone went to work.

She went on an 8-2 run by herself, draining a jumper, netting a pair of free throws, slapping down a layup, then pulling up for another jumper which tied the game at 62-62.

Stone’s final bucket, coming off an assist by Casey Poe, rattled home with 54 ticks on the clock.

George Fox answered with a Kaycee Creech lay-in at the 0:38 mark, then added one of two free throws with 11 seconds left to stretch out the final margin.

Whitman’s final two shots, both of which clanged off, came from veteran players and not their red-hot freshman.

As she and her teammates head into the postseason, Stone has 155 points (6.5 a night) and 141 rebounds (5.9) on the year.

She’s #2 on the team in rebounding and field goal percentage (51.5% on 68 of 132), and has collected 24 assists, 11 blocks and 12 steals.

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Back to kick your fanny!!

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college, tagged Basketball, close win, concussion, Lewis & Clark, Makana Stone, Whitman on February 17, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone was welcomed to Whitman with a gift of Walla Walla onions. She’s returned the favor by throwing down buckets. (Eileen Stone photo)

The supernova has returned.

After sitting out a game for concussion protocol, Makana Stone returned to the hard-court Friday, helping Whitman College to a 63-61 win over visiting Lewis and Clark.

The victory avenges an earlier loss to the Pioneers and lifts the Blues to 21-3 overall, 12-3 in Northwest Conference play.

Whitman is tied for second place headed into its regular season finale Saturday afternoon.

The Blues will welcome George Fox (20-4, 12-3), a team it beat 82-74 the first time around, for a game which will decide seeding for the league tourney.

Stone, a freshman from Coupeville, returned to the starting lineup Friday and threw down nine points while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds.

Five of her caroms came on the offensive glass.

Now 6-1 as a college starter, Stone had sat out Whitman’s win over Pacific Lutheran last Saturday after getting smacked hard in the face a night earlier in a tussle with Puget Sound.

She returned to that showdown after sitting out a quarter and still led the Blues in scoring and rebounding, but had some dizziness the next day and her coach took a precaution and sat her against a 1-21 team.

Everything was back to normal Friday, as Stone put in a strong 23 minutes of floor time for the Blues.

The game was a tight one, with Whitman up by five after one quarter, before Lewis & Clark knotted things at 30-30 headed into halftime.

A 19-17 edge in the third was the difference, as the two squads battled to a 14-14 stalemate in the fourth.

Three Blues hit double digit scoring, led by Chelsi Brewer with 14.

Casey Poe and Maegan Martin added 12 apiece, while Stone and Alysse Ketner both hit for nine.

The former Wolf spread out her offense across all four quarters, with her biggest bucket coming late in the game.

Grabbing an offensive rebound in a one-point game, Stone went right back up and drilled a jumper with 54 seconds left on the clock to stake Whitman to a 62-59 lead it would not relinquish.

It was one of three times she scored off of offensive boards in the game.

For the season, Stone has 144 points (6.3 a night) and 136 rebounds (5.9).

She’s second on the team in rebounding and field goal percentage (51.6% on 64 of 124), while also collecting 24 assists, nine blocks and 12 steals.

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CMS girls kick-off season with a bang!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, Middle School, tagged Basketball, Chelsea Prescott, Chimacum, CMS Wolves, Megan Smith, season opener on February 17, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Izzy Wells, seen here during a SWISH game, scored six points in her middle school hoops debut. (John Fisken photo)

Chalk up one for the next generation.

Megan Smith’s debut as a coach was a winning one, as the former Wolf hoops legend led her Coupeville Middle School 7th grade girls’ squad to a 24-17 win at Chimacum in its season opener.

The Cowboys rebounded to get a split, taking down the undermanned CMS 8th graders 40-21.

7th grade:

Smith, a three-time CHS Athlete of the Year before graduating in 2010, is returning to her old stomping grounds and following in the (large) coaching footsteps of parents Willie and Cherie Smith.

She immediately found the right mix, getting offensive pop from Anya Leavell, who went off for 10 points, and a team-wide commitment on D.

“We played some tough, fundamental defense,” Smith said. “We played incredibly hard and ended up with the outcome we deserved! Super proud of the team.”

Ja’Kenya Hoskins and Audrianna Shaw tickled the twines for six apiece to back up Leavell, while Kylie Van Velkinburgh drained a bucket to round out the scoring.

8th grade:

With just four 8th graders playing basketball, Wolf coach Ryan King is using a mix of 7th graders to fill out his roster.

8th grader Chelsea Prescott paced CMS with a team-high 10 points, while 7th grader Izzy Wells knocked down six in support.

Genna Wright (2), Samantha Streitler (2) and Heidi Clinkscales (1) rounded out the scoring attack, while Mollie Bailey and Kiara Contreras were their usual feisty selves.

“Overall, I was proud of all the girls. They fought hard from start to finish,” King said. “Every girl played hard. Great group of girls and proud of all of them.”

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Playoffs not pleasant!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, Cascade Christian, CHS Wolves, end of the road, playoffs on February 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Even with two tough playoff losses, the Wolf girls finished 15-6, best of any of Whidbey Island’s six high school teams. (Amy King photo)

The magic ran out.

A very successful season came to an unfortunate end Thursday for the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad.

Unable to buy a bucket in the first half, or cut into a double-digit deficit in the second, the Wolves fell 39-17 to Cascade Christian.

The loss, Coupeville’s second in three days on the faraway court at Bellarmine Prep High School in Tacoma, eliminated the Wolves from the district playoffs.

The CHS girls finished 15-6, by far the best record of any of Whidbey Island’s six varsity high school teams.

They went 9-0 in Olympic League play (running their record to 27-0 all-time), won their third straight conference crown and brought home the Friday Harbor Tip-Off Classic title for a second consecutive season.

Seattle Christian stunned Bellevue Christian 36-34 in Thursday night’s second playoff game to win the district title and punch its ticket to state.

BC and CC face off Saturday to determine District 3’s other state-bound squad.

Based on their play during the regular season, the Wolves entered districts with high hopes of returning to state for a second straight season.

Instead, something about making the 90+ mile trip each time and the unfamiliar court seemed to drain a lot of the life out of Coupeville’s players.

A team that played extremely strong defense all year struggled to recapture that lock-down style in both of its playoff games, and it stung them badly.

After a truly horrifying shooting performance Tuesday, the Wolves had much better shot selection Thursday, but couldn’t buy a bucket.

Shot after shot spun out of the cylinder, popped free or flat-out refused to take a friendly bounce.

And when the Wolves couldn’t score — they netted just five points in the first half Thursday — the pressure on their defense built greater and greater.

The game was briefly knotted up at 3-3 midway through the first quarter, but then Cascade Christian started to find a bit of a groove on the offensive end.

A 14-0 run from the Cougars that started in the final moments of the first and carried through much of the second quarter was a back-breaker for Coupeville.

Mia Littlejohn finally snapped her team’s epic cold streak with a little runner in the paint, but Cascade Christian responded with its only three-ball of the game on the very next possession, negating any brief Wolf hopes.

Coupeville, which trailed 22-5 at the break, did put up a far better fight in the second half, when coach David King played mix-and-match with his lineup.

The Wolf reserves lit a bit of a spark, with players like Lauren Rose and Ema Smith crashing around, making a silent bid for increased playing time next season.

With her younger teammates fighting for every ball, senior Kailey Kellner stepped up to provide a bit of a scoring punch, draining all seven of her points in the second half.

But, while the Wolves lost the second-half battle just 17-12, they were unable to score back-to-back buckets at any point in the game, effectively snuffing out comeback hopes.

Coupeville’s final basket came on maybe its best play of the night, as Kalia Littlejohn made off with a loose ball, led the break, then hit Kellner in stride for a layup.

While CHS held Cascade Christian’s leading scorer, Allison Downs, to just a pair of free throws, the Cougars got big games from Shelaine Lorenz, who scored 18, and Hailey Brandner, who knocked down 13.

Mia Littlejohn was the only Wolf to score in the first half, netting all five of her points, while Tiffany Briscoe (2), Mikayla Elfrank (2) and Lindsey Roberts (1) rounded out the limited attack.

Roberts and Elfrank hauled in eight boards apiece, with Briscoe snatching five.

The playoff loss was the swan song for Coupeville’s three seniors — Lauren Grove, Briscoe and Kellner.

Final season scoring stats:

Kailey Kellner – 180
Mikayla Elfrank – 128
Mia Littlejohn – 119
Lindsey Roberts – 83
Kalia Littlejohn – 68
Tiffany Briscoe – 53
Lauren Grove – 38
Lauren Rose – 30
Sarah Wright – 16
Kyla Briscoe – 7
Allison Wenzel – 4
Charlotte Langille – 2

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Hit the shot, shock the world!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged Basketball, buzzer beater, CHS Wolves, half-court shot, Joey Lippo, three-ball on February 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Joey Lippo, gunslinger. (John Fisken photo)

Now you can relive the shot of the year again and again.

Coupeville High School junior Joey Lippo put up the final shot of the 2016-2017 Wolf boys basketball season, draining a three-ball from well behind the half-court line at the end of a playoff loss to Bellevue Christian.

The shot, which came on the move, put a sweet cap on a season which had its share of struggles, and provided the first building block for next season and beyond.

Now the shot has surfaced, in all its glory, on YouTube, five seconds of Bow Down to Cow Town in living color.

For your award season consideration: