With Genna Wright cleaning the boards with a fury Friday, the Coupeville JV girls crushed Port Townsend. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Put ’em down and put ’em down hard and fast.
That was the goal for the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball squad Friday as it faced off with very-overwhelmed Port Townsend.
Mission accomplished, as the Wolves, behind the hot shooting touch of frosh phenom Mollie Bailey, jumped out to a 13-0 lead, then strolled home for a 28-6 win.
The victory lifts the CHS young guns to 3-4 in Olympic League play, 7-10 on the season, and gives them the most wins of any of the four Wolf hoops teams this winter.
Port Townsend’s JV is very much a work in progress, with many of its players unable to breach the withering Wolf defense.
Nicole Lester slapped home a rebound a few seconds into the game, effectively ending things, though the two teams continued to play so the paying fans would get their money’s worth.
With Bailey dropping home a pair of first-quarter buckets, one on a fall-away jumper, the other on a runner off of a break, Coupeville went to the first break up 11-0.
Tack on another Lester bucket, this one set up by a zinger of a pass from Tia Wurzrainer, and the game looked much like the two previous times the Wolves and RedHawks faced.
But there was a new wrinkle, as the Port Townsend JV, which didn’t score until the fourth quarter in the last meeting, tickled the twines just two minutes or so into the second quarter this time around.
It might not have been much, and was quickly answered by a soft jumper from Wurzrainer, a three-ball off the fingertips of Bailey and a stop ‘n pop jumper from Ashlie Shank, but it was still a nice moment for the still-growing RedHawks.
Up 22-4 at the break, Coupeville decided to give fans a chance to head to the snack bar or bathroom in the third.
In a rarity I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed at the high school level before, the squads combined to rim out 247 shots (give or take one or two) and score a combined ZERO points in the third.
Then it was back to Bailey knocking down jumpers and calmly cruising back down court, small smile slightly acknowledging the screams of her rabid fan base, and we were done.
The freshman sharpshooter finished with 11 points, while Wurzrainer, Lester and Genna Wright each tallied four.
Maddy Hilkey (3) and Shank (2) also scored, while Kylie Chernikoff was a one-woman wrecking crew on the boards, and Spanish sensation Julia García Oñoro came dangerously close to scoring her first American points.
Drawing an explosion of cheers from her teammates, García Oñoro pulled down a rebound and, maybe for the first time since she hit these shores, immediately shot right back up and tried to knock down the shot.
While her bucket wouldn’t drop, the foreign exchange student was battered around the head by a pair of RedHawk rivals and earned two free throws.
Trying to stay composed as varsity star Sarah Wright hollered her name, García Oñoro had both charity shots pop back up and out, as the basketball gods refused to play fair.
Still, her shy smile as she was mobbed by teammates and congratulated by CHS coach Amy King afterwards, was worth far more than two points.
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