Ja’Kenya Hoskins, seen last year as an 8th grader, scored her first high school varsity points Tuesday, and they couldn’t have come at a bigger time. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Everyone contributes.
From the senior captains to the freshmen swing players, the Coupeville High School girls varsity basketball squad gets something from all of its players, and it’s paying off.
Tuesday night was a prime example, as the Wolves, playing without two starters for the second straight game, pulled together, showed incredible grit and determination in the fourth quarter, and escaped with another win.
This time, it was a 40-33 victory over visiting Granite Falls, thanks to superb plays from young guns Chelsea Prescott and Ja’Kenya Hoskins and surprisingly good free-throw shooting in the game’s final moments.
The win lifts CHS to 4-2 in North Sound Conference play, 6-7 overall, and solidifies its hold on third-place in the six-team league.
The Wolves trail King’s (6-0) and Cedar Park Christian (5-1), while sitting well ahead of Granite (2-4), Sultan (1-5), and South Whidbey (0-6), who they play Friday at home.
A win in that game, against a team it beat by 35 points the first time around, and Coupeville clinches a playoff spot.
Tuesday night, the Wolves were back on their home court for the first time in nearly a month, but minus two major weapons, senior Lindsey Roberts and junior Hannah Davidson.
Roberts, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, suffered a nasty finger injury early in Coupeville’s last game, while Davidson is recovering from a hurt ankle.
Unable to call on either veteran, CHS coach David King went to his bench and gave junior defensive whiz kid Tia Wurzrainer her first career start, then employed freshman Ja’Kenya Hoskins for her longest varsity stint.
Both players responded in style.
“Tia and Ja’Kenya did a really good job and brought a lot of energy,” King said. “We talked about having each player step up and play a little bigger and add a little more to their game.
“It’s not to be put on just one or two players,” he added. “Tonight the players did a little more and shared in picking up what Hannah and Lindsey bring us.”
Coupeville’s support crew stood tallest in the crucible of the fourth quarter, rising to the moment after the Wolves frittered away a 10-point lead.
Granite opened the final frame with an 11-4 surge, using two free throws with a little over four minutes to play to knot things at 31-31.
Having seen a 25-15 advantage vanish into the wind, the Wolves could have broken. Could have fallen apart, and said, well, we tried, and taken the moral victory.
Except they weren’t having it.
Prescott, working hard down in the paint, with three Tigers hanging on her, pummeling her from head to toe, promptly broke her foot off in Granite’s collective posterior.
Finding the smallest crack in the defense, the super sophomore slipped through a tangle of arms, draining a gorgeous spinning shot and effectively winning the game on the spot.
The visitors didn’t go down that easily, of course, netting a free throw to cut the lead back to one, but that was just the cue for Hoskins to hit the shot of the year.
The fab frosh had spent the night being a whirlwind, crashing the boards, poking balls free, forcing bad shots and then getting out on the run.
She had capped the first quarter with a breakaway layup, scoring her first-ever varsity points, but for her second act, Hoskins decided to get downright dramatic.
With CHS clinging to a one-point lead, and likely the fifth shooting option of the five players on the floor, the lil’ sister of former Wolf hoops star Jai’Lysa Hoskins announced her own arrival with a shot which probably caused King’s stomach to lurch a bit.
Everyone in the gym expected the freshman to kick the ball back out, but instead “Ja’Kenya the Tiger Killer” spun and banked a turnaround jumper off the glass.
The ball arced up, King looked like he needed some Pepto-Bismo, and then the ball kissed the backboard and softly plopped through the net, sending the fans into delirium and drawing a smile from her now-relieved coach.
Riding an emotional high, the Wolves closed the game’s final minute like stone-cold killers.
A CHS team which had hit just two of 11 free throws to that point swished five of their final six freebies to ice the win.
Prescott had dead-aim on two charity shots, while Scout Smith tossed in the game’s final three points, each shot caressing the net as the ball slid through the twine.
The strong finish capped a game which took a few wild swings.
Coupeville came out strongly, with Prescott drilling a jumper from the side to open scoring, followed by back-to-back buckets from left-handed assassin Avalon Renninger.
Toss in a three-ball by Ema Smith, the first of her three treys on the night, and Hoskins layup, and CHS exited the first quarter up 11-4.
And then the offense stalled-out for a bit.
Other than a second three-ball from Ema Smith, the Wolves couldn’t buy a bucket for the first seven minutes of the second quarter, and actually fell behind 15-14 at one point.
That narrow deficit would be the one and only time Coupeville was on the wrong side of the score, however, as CHS ended the half with a couple free throws and a lunging lay-in from Prescott off a sizzlin’ in-bounds pass.
The Wolves put the hammer down in the third, opening with a 7-0 run to stretch the lead out to 10, before settling for a 27-20 advantage headed into the fourth.
Ema Smith hit on her final trey, sending the ball through the net with a single second left on the shot clock, while Wurzrainer and Nicole Laxton added big buckets.
Laxton slapped home her basket after getting the ball off of a note-perfect drive ‘n dish from Scout Smith, while Wurzrainer’s jumper bounced around the rim 2,437 times before splashing home.
That set up the fourth quarter, where things veered from scary to serene.
Even as the lead slipped away, the Wolves continued to hit big shots, though, with Scout Smith lofting a rainbow jumper off the sweet spot of the glass, while Prescott yanked a rebound free and powered back up for a key put-back.
With Roberts and her 11 points a night scoring average on the bench in street clothes, Coupeville spread out its offense.
Ema Smith paced the Wolves with 11, while Prescott banged home 10 and Scout Smith rustled the nets for six.
Renninger (4), Hoskins (4), Laxton (3), and Wurzrainer (2) also scored, while Mollie Bailey, Izzy Wells, and Anya Leavell all chipped in with scrappy, ball-hawking defense during their stints on the floor.
Proving guards can clean the boards, Scout Smith hauled in a team-high nine rebounds to go with four assists, while Hoskins snatched seven caroms and Ema Smith collected six.
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