Tia Wurzrainer netted five points Friday at Chimacum. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Sometimes the score doesn’t tell all.
While the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball squad fell 33-25 at Chimacum Friday, Wolf coach Amy King looked beyond the numbers on the board.
“It was one of the best games JV has played this season,” the sage round-ball wizard said.
While the loss drops the young guns to 2-4 in Olympic League play, 6-10 overall, King was especially pleased with how her players have adapted in the past few days to facing withering defenses.
“Normally, when a team puts a press on us, we panic and rush everything and that results in turnovers,” she said. “For the past two practices we worked on slowing the ball down, spreading out more on the press break, passing more and dribbling less.
“This game, we did all those things that we practiced.”
With Ashlie Shank and Mollie Bailey doing “a great job passing back and forth up the court,” the Wolves showed off some of the “best passing we have done this season.”
With plenty of open shots to be had in the first half, the Wolves jumped out to a 6-4 lead at the first break, then went in tied 12-12 at the half.
Unfortunately, CHS lost Avalon Renninger, as the sophomore spark plug got knocked silly when a Chimacum player plowed right through her.
Adding insult to injury, not only did the Wolf star have to leave the game and go into concussion protocol after hitting her head, the refs also called a foul on her, and not the offensive player imitating a freight train going down a mountain decline with no brakes.
Even playing a woman down, Coupeville regained the lead in the third, with Maddy Hilkey, Tia Wurzrainer and Ashlie Shank all coming up with big shots.
Wurzrainer, who lives, dies and excels on defense, netted hers after a sizzling set-up pass from Bailey and some open encouragement from the varsity coach.
“Mollie made a great pass to Tia and she can hear Mr. (David) King from the bench say “shoot it” and well, if he says to, you do,” Amy King said with a laugh. “She shot it, made it and got a free throw as well.”
The game took a turn for the worse in the fourth, though, as Chimacum reverted to its standard style of “beat the ball-handler black and blue.”
“The game started getting rough,” King said. “Ashlie got pushed out of bounds, flying across the floor. No call. Mollie had visible red on her arm from being slapped. No call.
“We start getting tensed up and they capitalized on the errors we made.”
A 21-18 lead to start the fourth slipped away in a hail of non-calls and questionable decisions from the refs.
Despite playing against more than just the five rivals on the floor, the young Wolves never quit.
“The girls fought and never let down,” King said. “Once the game ended, we were all disappointed, but, during the post game talk, it was determined that we played a really good game despite the score.
“Our passing was great. We took the right shots, broke their press easier than the last time and everyone worked hard,” she added. “We see them one more time on our home court and will continue to work hard to have a different outcome.”
Shank paced the Wolves with eight, Hilkey (6), Wurzrainer (5), Bailey (2), Genna Wright (2) and Lester (2) also scored and Kylie Chernikoff and Julia García Oñoro combined for four rebounds.
Coupeville Sports 