Skyler Lawrence (left) and Tiffany Briscoe may smile a lot, but they’re nobody’s pushovers. (Amy Briscoe photo)
It was one of those kinds of nights.
The sort of Friday night when you face a rough-and-tumble Sultan squad that’s not fond of making the long trip to Whidbey Island, and you get as many bruises as points scored.
That number would be 26 for the Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball team, with at least 17 of those bruises going to freshman post Tiffany Briscoe, who spent much of the game being hammered to the floor.
But, since she’s a born-and-bred tough girl, she would bounce back up each time, smile mostly still intact on her face, and try to tuck renegade strands of hair back into place before the next freight train smacked into her.
Her resilience under fire — and the taco salad, cookies and cupcakes supplied to the team after the game by her mom, Amy — were the big highlights for a Wolf squad that scrapped to a 20-20 tie midway through the third, before eventually falling 39-26.
With swing players Wynter Thorne, McKayla Bailey and Monica Vidoni having moved up full-time to the varsity and freshman point guard Carlie Rosenkrance limited in her JV playing time, so she’d be available for varsity action if needed, the Wolves were looking for someone to step up and take the reins.
Lauren Grove did so, directing traffic for much of the game — when she wasn’t being smacked in the face or flung to the floor — and her two first-quarter buckets helped spur Coupeville to a 12-10 lead.
McKenzie Bailey’s three-point bomb from downtown capped the first quarter, while fellow guard Emily Coulter rained down a one-handed trey that kicked off the second half and made her dad scream like a (very happy) wild man.
The Wolves fell behind by eight near the end of the third quarter, then used a 5-2 run capped by a banked-in jumper from Skyler Lawrence to get back to five at 30-25.
After that, Coupeville’s shots went ice cold, however, allowing the visiting Turks to close the game on a 9-1 run.
If nothing else, the Wolves shared the ball well, with nine of their 11 players scoring.
Coulter, Grove and Rosenkrance led the way with four apiece, while Kailey Kellner and Bailey both added three. Rounding out the scoring list with a bucket apiece were Sophia Jebrail, Briscoe, Lawrence and Mattea Miller.
Coupeville Sports 