Avalon Renninger scored four points, grabbed two boards and was her usual scrappy, ball-hawking self Saturday as Coupeville squared off with The Bush School. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Abby Parrish could not, and would not, miss.
The private school sharpshooter blitzed Coupeville Saturday, tossing in five three-balls en route to an 18-point performance, as The Bush School derailed the young Wolf girls basketball squad 51-27.
The home non-conference loss, which came in a game where CHS played without its leader, senior Lindsey Roberts, drops the Wolves to 0-2.
Without its fleet-footed, long-limbed defensive dynamo, who was earning scholarship money with a visit to Washington State University, Coupeville had trouble slowing down the bigger Bush bangers.
“Their two post players, they hurt us all game,” said CHS coach David King. “Inside on the low block and then beyond the three-point line.”
Toss in an apathetic start, perhaps due to the early weekend start, and a Wolf team which played three freshmen and two sophomores had trouble matching up with a veteran-led rival.
The two teams went three-and-a-half minutes before scoring the game’s first point, but then Parrish drilled back-to-back treys.
Coupeville’s only points in the first seven-minutes-plus came courtesy two free throws from Chelsea Prescott, as shot after shot slid off.
“We had some open looks throughout and many fell short of their mark,” King said. “Just not getting our legs under us.”
The seal on the rim finally broke for the Wolves when Avalon Renninger, hanging in air, got a jumper to pop straight upwards off the back of the rim, then sweetly plop through the waiting net.
While that pulled the Wolves back to within 11-4, they were immediately stung, however, as a Bush player slipped through the crowd to yank down a rebound and put it back up and in right at the first quarter buzzer.
The second quarter was where Bush stuck the dagger in, using a 9-0 run to stretch its lead out to 20.
The biggest bright spot in the frame was freshmen Anya Leavell swishing a long jumper from the right side, netting her first varsity points.
With Roberts gone, and no JV game since Bush only had one team, Leavell and fellow frosh Ja’Kenya Hoskins and Izzy Wells swung up and saw considerable floor time.
Two of the three scored, with Wells banking home a fourth-quarter shot, while Hoskins led Coupeville with seven rebounds.
Things turned for the better after a timeout right before halftime, as the Wolves closed the quarter on a surge of energy, then carried it over to a much-more competitive second half.
“That’s when we started to see a spark,” King said. “Coming out of halftime, we wanted to continue with the energy, and it was there.”
Sophomore sensation Prescott knocked down seven of her team-high nine after the break, netting a three-ball and another shot which missed being a three-ball by a fraction of an inch.
She was also wheeling and dealing with the ball, dishing to Renninger, who dropped a pull-up jumper in the paint during Coupeville’s best run.
That mini-surge included a rebound on which Scout Smith knocked the careening ball right onto the fingertips of teammate Nicole Laxton.
Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was on purpose (it looked on purpose, and fits Smith’s cerebral playing style), but the tip was perfectly-placed.
Wheeling on one foot, while sporting socks decorated with rubber duckies, Laxton drained the put-back, flicking the ball off the glass.
Toss out the first half, and the game was a six-point affair with enough positives to inspire King.
“All three freshmen showed some promise,” he said. “(Senior) Ema (Smith) had some precision passes and held her own at the defensive end in her season debut and Hannah (Davidson) played energized basketball in the second half.
“This is a game that we need to learn from and move forward and work on correcting some things,” King added. “One positive we talked about was ball movement. When we move the ball offensively we are getting open looks. We did a much better job of that in the second half.”
Prescott’s nine-point, five-rebound, one-steal, one-block, one-assist night paced the Wolves, while Scout Smith and Renninger added four points apiece.
Davidson, Laxton, Tia Wurzrainer, Wells and Leavell each tallied two, with the last three from that group all scoring for the first time at the varsity level.
After getting (unnecessary) grief from the refs pre-game about her head band, sophomore point guard Mollie Bailey let the looooong hair braids fly free and brought considerable scrappiness to the floor, rounding out the Wolf roster.
