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Posts Tagged ‘George Fox University’

The big payback!!

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , , on February 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone

   CHS grad Makana Stone (left) is joined by fellow fab frosh Mady Burdett (middle) and Annissia Hughes.

Sweet redemption.

Just five days after it lost its regular season finale, the Whitman College women’s basketball squad rebounded Thursday to knock that same foe out of the playoffs.

The Blues, playing on the road in Newberg, OR, beat George Fox University 78-71 in the semifinals of the Northwest Conference Women’s Tournament.

Whitman (22-4) advances to play Puget Sound (25-1) in Tacoma 7 PM Saturday.

The Loggers almost didn’t make it to the championship game, which would have been a huge shock.

They were forced to rally from 10 points down with four minutes to play against Lewis & Clark, escaping with a 61-58 win.

The winning points came on a three-point play the hard way (bucket and free throw) from Jamie Lange, the league’s Freshman of the Year, with just 10 seconds to play.

Over in Oregon, the other semifinal matched teams with identical records that had split games during the regular season.

Whitman won 82-74 in Oregon Jan. 22, before George Fox upended the Blues 65-62 Feb. 18 in Walla Walla.

Thursday’s game started in favor of the Bruins, who built a 37-33 lead at the half, before Whitman stormed back in the second half.

A 23-15 third quarter gave the Blues the lead and they never relinquished it after that.

Coupeville High School grad Makana Stone, making the ninth start of her freshman season, dropped in 10 points and snatched seven boards in 31 minutes of action.

It was the second time the former Wolf has broken the 30-minute barrier this season (she played 35 minutes against Louisiana College in Dec.) and she used her time well.

Stone scored in every quarter, tickling the twines with three silky jumpers and two layups.

She was one of four Blues to hit double digits in scoring, with Chelsi Brewer (20), Casey Poe (15) and Emily Rommel (15) also wielding a hot shooting touch.

On the season, Stone has seen action in 25 of 26 games (missing one because of concussion protocol) and has racked up 165 points and 148 rebounds.

She’s #2 on the squad in rebounding and field goal percentage and has 25 assists, 11 blocks and 13 steals on her stat sheet.

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Stone rock-solid to the end!!

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , , on February 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone, seen here during her senior season at CHS, has been a dynamo on the college hardwood. (John Fisken photo)

   Makana Stone, seen here during her senior season at CHS, has been a dynamo on the college hardwood. (John Fisken photo)

Makana Stone would not go down without a fight.

The Coupeville grad scored her team’s final eight points Saturday, but not even her late-game heroics could save Whitman College in its regular season women’s basketball finale.

When teammate Mady Burdett’s three-ball at the buzzer bounced off the rim, the Blues fell 65-62, settling for third-place in the final Northwest Conference standings.

Whitman closes regular season play at 12-4 in league, 21-4 overall.

George Fox (13-3, 21-4), which avenged an earlier loss to the Blues, finish runner-ups behind Puget Sound (16-0, 24-1).

Those three teams, and fourth-place Lewis & Clark (9-7, 16-9), advance to the league tourney.

Whitman travels to Newberg, Oregon Thursday, Feb. 23 for an immediate rematch with George Fox.

Win that game and the Blues advance to the championship game Feb. 25, where they would play the winner of Puget Sound and Lewis & Clark.

Making her eighth start as a freshman, Stone threw down 11 points, snatched five rebounds and delivered two crushing blocks.

The rejections both came in the first quarter, as Whitman roared out to a 9-0 lead in the early going, before faltering a bit.

George Fox knotted the game at 18-18 after one quarter, and things remained tied 31-31 at the half.

A 22-18 third quarter run by the visitors was the difference, and the Bruins were still clinging to a 60-54 lead with 2:58 to play when Stone went to work.

She went on an 8-2 run by herself, draining a jumper, netting a pair of free throws, slapping down a layup, then pulling up for another jumper which tied the game at 62-62.

Stone’s final bucket, coming off an assist by Casey Poe, rattled home with 54 ticks on the clock.

George Fox answered with a Kaycee Creech lay-in at the 0:38 mark, then added one of two free throws with 11 seconds left to stretch out the final margin.

Whitman’s final two shots, both of which clanged off, came from veteran players and not their red-hot freshman.

As she and her teammates head into the postseason, Stone has 155 points (6.5 a night) and 141 rebounds (5.9) on the year.

She’s #2 on the team in rebounding and field goal percentage (51.5% on 68 of 132), and has collected 24 assists, 11 blocks and 12 steals.

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Stone starts, Blues romp!!

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , on January 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone (John Fisken photo)

   Makana Stone, seen here during her high school days, made her first college start Sunday afternoon. (John Fisken photo)

Makana Stone got her moment in the spotlight, and it paid dividends for the Whitman College women’s basketball squad.

Making her debut as a college starter Sunday, the freshman phenom and former Coupeville High School star lit a spark under the Blues, who roared out to a 10-0 lead en route to knocking off highly-ranked George Fox University.

Stone snatched four boards, scored a bucket, doled out an assist and rejected a shot in the game’s opening minutes, helping Whitman roll to an 82-74 win.

That snaps a two-game skid for the Blues and lifts them to 15-2 overall, 6-2 in the Northwest Conference.

They move back into second-place, trailing just front-runner Puget Sound (8-0).

Stone, who has been one of the first players off the bench in every game this season, got the nod as a starter on the road and responded.

She finished with five points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 23 minutes of action, including grabbing the game’s first and last rebounds.

After adding three more boards and her second block in the second quarter, Stone picked up two of her three assists at a crucial moment early in the fourth.

She fed Emily Rommel, who scored a team-high 20, on back-to-back buckets to stake Whitman to a 62-60 lead.

Through 17 games, Stone is averaging 5.0 points and 5.1 rebounds a night.

Her 87 boards put her third on the team, while she also has 15 assists, seven blocks and 11 steals.

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Livin’ the hoops life!!

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , , on November 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Former Wolf Bessie Walstad (11), sporting a new uniform at George Fox University. (Photo courtesy Renee Walstad)

   Former Wolf Bessie Walstad (11), sporting a new uniform at George Fox University. (Photo courtesy Renee Walstad)

At least two former Wolf basketball stars are taking their game to the college court this winter.

Coupeville High School grads Bessie Walstad and Monica Vidoni are lacing up and running lines, continuing to pursue the hoops dream.

After taking a couple of years off, Walstad, a 2013 CHS grad, has picked the game back up in Oregon, where she attends George Fox University.

She’s playing for the Bruins JV squad, and getting back on the court at the NCAA D-III school has been a thrill.

“It is tons of fun!,” Walstad said.

Vidoni, a 2015 grad, is two games into her first hoops season at Rainy River Community College in Minnesota.

The Voyageurs are 2-0, having beaten Fond du Lac Tribal 71-51 and Hibbing 79-62.

Vidoni’s best game came in the opener, when she scored two points, snagged five rebounds and rejected a shot.

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Pride of the Wolves, now and forever!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Happy birthday, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , , , on December 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Happy birthday, Bessie!!

Happy birthday, Bessie!!

Bessie Walstad was the gold standard.

From the first moments of her freshman year to the last days of her senior seasons, she was as fine of an athlete, and a person, as Coupeville High School has been graced to have in recent memory.

A star, and better yet, a true leader who reached out to all of her teammates, top to bottom, Bessie’s impact went far beyond mere stats.

Though she had those, too.

As she anchored Wolf volleyball, basketball and softball teams, Bessie was almost always at the top of what ever chart you wanted to keep.

She has a chunk of trophies, letters, awards and All-Conference honors and deserves them.

Competing for Coupeville at somewhat of a tough time, as the Wolves tried to survive against rivals with much bigger student bodies and scholarship-bestowing private schools in the 1A/2A Cascade Conference, Walstad never backed down.

She came out swinging, always, and played hard from the opening tip to the final strike.

And she did it always with a huge smile on her face. She wasn’t playing because she had to, but because she wanted to.

Bessie, who celebrates her 20th birthday today, is now at George Fox University, on to new adventures and new successes.

But what she did for four years in the red and black can not be minimized.

She is that shining example that young athletes coming up should look to emulate.

Walstad never skipped a season, never skipped a sport. She played to win, every time, but handled wins and losses with the same grace. She was a leader, a true teammate.

Bessie took her four years at CHS and got as much out of them as she possibly could. She will be able to look back at her high school athletic days and have few, if any regrets.

I have covered sports on Whidbey Island for 24 years and she would be on the short list of the best student/athletes I have ever covered. For her athletic accomplishments, yes, but also for the person she was, and is.

Happy birthday, Bessie, and thank you.

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