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Posts Tagged ‘girls basketball’

Fab four feted

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged CHS Wolves, girls basketball, Hannah Davidson, John Fisken photos, Senior Night on February 5, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Scout Smith leads off a collection of CHS girls hoops Senior Night pics. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Proud dads (l to r) Chris Smith, Michael Davidson, Andreas Wurzrainer, and Phil Renninger all try not to be the first one to cry.

Tia Wurzrainer

Smith and Wurzrainer are joined by Hannah Davidson (13) and Avalon Renninger.

Hannah Davidson

Wurzrainer and Smith, ready to whomp on South Whidbey.

Avalon Renninger

CHS coach Scott Fox hangs out with his team leaders.

They are the core around which success has been built.

Coupeville High School seniors Avalon Renninger, Scout Smith, Tia Wurzrainer, and Hannah Davidson have been vital parts of the Wolf girls hoops program, and Tuesday night was all about them.

Before crushing South Whidbey and finishing the regular season at 12-5, the Wolf leaders got their moment in the spotlight.

Now, on to the playoffs!

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Sweet Senior Night success

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged CHS Wolves, girls basketball, Island rivalry, Scout Smith, Senior Night, SWHS Falcons on February 5, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Avalon Renninger and her fellow CHS seniors came up big Tuesday, drilling South Whidbey to finish the regular season at 12-5. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

This is the way you want to go out.

While the Coupeville High School varsity girls basketball squad may come back around to play at home again in the playoffs, Tuesday night was a fitting send-off for its splendid seniors.

The four-pack of Tia Wurzrainer, Avalon Renninger, Scout Smith, and Hannah Davidson closed the regular season in style, sparking the Wolves to a 39-27 win over visiting South Whidbey.

With the victory, CHS closes out North Sound Conference play at 6-3, claiming third-place in the six-team league.

Now 12-5 overall, the Wolves open the double-elimination district playoffs next Monday, Feb. 10, when they travel to Nooksack Valley.

Beat the Pioneers (14-5), the #2 seed from the Northwest Conference, and Coupeville advances to the district semifinals and a likely match-up with King’s (15-5).

Drop that opener, and CHS would host its second playoff game Feb. 11.

To see the bracket, pop over to:

http://www.nscathletics.com/tournament.php?tournament_id=3214&sport=12

Tuesday night was about honoring the Wolf seniors, who have played together since middle school, and they responded, almost outscoring South Whidbey by themselves.

Wurzrainer, known for being a defensive dynamo, got things started by slipping a free throw through the net in the opening moments, signaling the start of one of her strongest performances of the season on both sides of the ball.

While South Whidbey slipped a bucket through the defense shortly after to claim a 2-1 lead, it would be the one and only time the Falcons would have the advantage.

Wolf junior Chelsea Prescott snatched a rebound away from a rival, then knocked down the put-back and a fuse was lit for Coupeville.

Ripping off a 15-0 tear in which five different Wolves tallied at least one bucket, CHS surged to a 16-2 lead and looked, for a bit, like it was going to savage its guests in spectacular fashion.

Prescott followed up her put-back with a soft jumper from the side and a bucket in the paint, while Wurzrainer and Smith pulled off coast-to-coast romps off of steals.

Everything was falling, all the passes were crisp — such as the one which set up Izzy Wells for a long, arcing jumper — and even the wild-card shots were dead-on.

Launching a three-ball from the top of the arc, Renninger spun a wicked liner which slammed into the glass, then promptly died on the spot and flopped straight through.

The success of the shot seemed to catch the left-handed ace by surprise.

Just for a second, though, as Renninger promptly nodded, a small smile slipping out as she whirled and scrambled back down-court to snuff out another Falcon opportunity.

But, just as the game was turning into a romp, Coupeville fell out of rhythm on the offensive end of the floor, allowing South Whidbey a chance to rally.

A miracle Falcon three-ball at the first-quarter buzzer was like a stab through the heart of Wolf Nation, capping a 7-0 run and cutting the lead to 16-9.

Things got a little tighter from there, with the lead slashed all the way back to 17-13 late in the second quarter.

Coupeville needed something to stop the bleeding, and it came in the form of note-perfect free throw shooting, as Davidson and Prescott stepped to the line and knocked down two freebies apiece after getting roughed up.

The Wolves closed the half with a beautiful play, as Davidson made off with a steal, then hit a cutting Wurzrainer in transition for a layup which pushed the lead back to double-digits.

That set up a second half in which Coupeville thoroughly controlled everything.

Pushing the lead to its largest margin at 33-15 exiting the third quarter, the Wolves looked sharp.

Wurzrainer fed Renninger with a gorgeous pass, and her tennis doubles partner barely made the net move as she sank yet another runner.

Then the freshman got in on the good times, with Maddie Georges driving and dishing, setting up Carolyn Lhamon for a bucket in the paint.

South Whidbey continued to bang away and play hard (and physical), but the Wolves had an answer each time, never letting the lead slip under 12 the rest of the way.

It was a performance which brought a smile to the face of veteran coach Scott Fox, in his first year at the helm of the CHS program.

“The effort has always been there (with this group),” he said. “I like the way they compete, and I couldn’t be more proud of this group of girls.”

Prescott rattled the rims for eight points on a night when Coupeville’s scoring was incredibly well-balanced.

Joining her in the scoring column were Wurzrainer (6), Smith (6), Davidson (6), Renninger (5), Wells (4), Georges (2), and Lhamon (2).

Young guns Kylie Van Velkinburgh, Audrianna Shaw, Mollie Bailey, and Anya Leavell came on late, giving Coupeville’s seniors a chance to walk off together, as a unit, to the cheers of their family and friends.

Meanwhile, freshman enforcer Nezi Keiper, rehabbing from an injury, provided emotional support for one and all from her perch at the end of the bench.

While the primary focus was on nabbing a team win to honor the seniors and send Coupeville into the playoffs on a positive note, the stats hounds are ever vigilant.

With three buckets Tuesday, Smith has 283 varsity points, and moves past Wolf legend Hailey Hammer (282) to claim 38th place on the CHS girls hoops career scoring list.

Prescott, now with 247 points, continues to rise as well, passing Kendra O’Keefe (244) to move into a tie for #45 with Marlys West on a chart which stretches back to 1974.

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Welcome to the big payback

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Alita Blouin, Audrianna Shaw, CHS Wolves, girls basketball, JV, SWHS Falcons on February 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Audrianna Shaw (5) played often-brilliant ball on both ends of the floor Tuesday night, sparking the Wolf JV to a come-from-behind win over South Whidbey. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Sweet, sweet revenge is ours.

Despite not netting a field goal for nearly 13 minutes to open the game Tuesday, the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball team stormed from behind to topple visiting South Whidbey.

With the 37-31 win, sparked by a dynamic fourth quarter from Audrianna Shaw, the Wolves earn a season split with their next-door neighbors, avenging a two-point loss at Langley in mid-January.

The victory lifts CHS to 7-2 in North Sound Conference play, 11-4 overall.

Megan Smith’s squad has one game left on the schedule, a home non-conference rumble with La Conner Thursday. Tip-off is set for 6 PM.

Tuesday’s tilt with the Falcons didn’t start off all that great for Coupeville.

Unable to get anything to drop from the floor, the Wolves could only scrape out a pair of Shaw free throws in the first quarter, and they were spaced more than five minutes apart.

Making matters worse, South Whidbey hit a miracle three-point shot at the first-quarter buzzer, the ball corkscrewing through the air, then catching a small sliver of glass and (somehow) banking itself through the net.

With the Falcons up 11-2 and whoopin’ it up over their gift from the heavens, the Wolves needed to catch a break.

They’d have to wait awhile, though.

Coupeville went scoreless through the first four-and-a-half minutes of the second quarter as well, though it did clamp down on defense and ice out the Falcons.

Shaw finally broke the scoreless stalemate with two more free throws at the 3:26 mark, and then, mercifully, things took a huge positive swing.

It started with Anya Leavell sliding in front of a pass and picking it off, then slashing downcourt and pegging a smooth pass onto the waiting fingertips of a streaking Gwen Gustafson.

The Wolf frosh beat the Falcons to the hoop, slapped home a layup, and 12 minutes and 43 seconds after the opening tip, Coupeville had a field goal.

The hometown hoops stars liked that first score so much, they immediately added two more, with Shaw slashing inside for a bucket, then Leavell taking another steal coast-to-coast.

While South Whidbey recovered to score the final basket of the half, staking itself to a 13-10 lead at the half, the momentum had turned.

After combining to score just 23 first-half points, the two teams suddenly got all offensive in the third frame, with the Wolves having the upper hand during a 15-12 mini-surge.

Alita Blouin, stalking the court like a blood-thirsty assassin, led the way, tossing in seven points on a variety of moves, while breaking at least twice that many ankles.

She had plenty of help, with fellow freshman Ryanne Knoblich rumbling through the paint for a pair of huge buckets and Ella Colwell ripping down rebounds by the handful.

There were seven lead changes and six ties during the third quarter, with neither team ever up by more than a single bucket, setting the stage for a furious finale.

And the fourth quarter lived up to the anticipation, as the arch-rivals swapped leads back and forth.

Abby Mulholland rolled hard to the hoop, slapping home a go-ahead bucket, before Shaw pilfered a steal, zipped down court, and dribbled rings around two defenders as she wiggled through an incredibly small hole for a crowd-pleasing layup.

But South Whidbey wasn’t quite ready to crack, and a three-point play the hard way put the Falcons back on top 31-29 as the clock ticked madly down.

Which meant it was time for Smith to lean on her wily vets, and the Wolf swing players came through big down the stretch.

A pair of free throws from the always-unflappable Mollie Bailey knotted the score at 31-31, then the Wolves busted open the game with a brilliant bit of teamwork.

Shaw jumped a wayward pass, picked it off, flipped the ball to Bailey, then got down the floor as fast as her feet would carry her.

Weaving through back-pedaling defenders, Bailey sucked the defense to her, before skipping a pass right back to her running mate, who sealed the win with a breakaway bucket.

Coupeville tacked on two more baskets, one each for Leavell and Shaw, just to make sure things wouldn’t get dicey, but it probably wouldn’t have mattered, as the Wolf defense was lights-out across the game’s final three minutes.

Shaw finished with a game-high 12 points, while Blouin (7), Knoblich (4), Bailey (4), Leavell (4), Gustafson (3), Mulholland (2), and Colwell (1) also scored.

Jessenia Camarena, Morgan Stevens, and Kylie Van Velkinburgh chipped in with strong defensive work, with Camarena providing a particular jolt off the bench.

Forcing several jump balls, and slingin’ elbows with the best of them, she’s a somewhat underrated hustle player, and one who continues to show great promise for the Wolves.

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Never-nervous Wolves pull out another win

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged CHS Wolves, girls basketball, Granite Falls, Maddie Georges, North Sound Conference on February 1, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Avalon Renninger hit one bucket Friday, and it was huge. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Just win, baby.

It was the mantra of the Oakland Raiders during their Super Bowl-winning heyday, and it fits for the current Coupeville High School varsity girls basketball squad as well.

The Wolves have been a work in progress this season, but a successful one.

They’ve endured some shooting woes, from the field and the line, but hard work on the boards, a feisty mentality on defense, and some clutch shooting when it matters most, has kept CHS alive and thriving.

Case in point, Friday night, as the Wolves overcame an epic cold spell and found a way to turn on the heat in crunch time, using a fourth-quarter run to crack visiting Granite Falls.

Closing the game on a 14-2 run, with four different players scoring, Coupeville pulled out a come-from-behind 41-32 win and set themselves up nicely for the playoffs.

With the win, the Wolves improve to 5-3 in North Sound Conference play and clinch the league’s #3 postseason seed behind King’s and Cedar Park Christian.

Now 11-5 overall, Coupeville closes the regular season Tuesday at home, with Senior Night on tap, and South Whidbey (3-5, 9-10) the opponent.

The double-elimination district playoffs kick off Feb. 10, and Coupeville will be on the road at the home of the #2 Northwest Conference team.

That should be Nooksack Valley (13-4), a team the Wolves lost to 52-30 right before winter break.

A win sends CHS on to play NSC league champ King’s, while a loss pits them against either the #5 NSC team (Sultan) or the #4 NWC squad (Meridian or Mount Baker).

Either way the second game is Feb. 11.

Win their opener, and the Wolves travel to Shoreline. Lose, and they host game two.

Friday night’s fracas, which pitted the Wolves against a cellar-dweller team, was always going to be tough, regardless of records.

Granite Falls hasn’t won many games this season, but the Tigers are a physical, scrappy squad which doesn’t go down easily.

Coupeville got a taste of that a week-and-a-half back, when it escaped Granite with a one-point win, and Friday’s game, after a great start, quickly went the same way.

In the early going, CHS coach Scott Fox might have been feeling pretty good, as the Wolves roared out to a 14-6 lead before the first quarter was done.

Hannah Davidson drilled the bottom out of the net on a lil’ jumper from the side to kick off the scoring, then almost all of her teammates jumped on the scoring train.

Scout Smith, Maddie Georges, Izzy Wells, and Chelsea Prescott all scored during the opening surge, with Georges pulling off a three-point play the hard way on a full-court drive, layup in traffic, and free throw.

Prescott swished back-to-back jumpers from the side, with the second coming off a very long rebound which found its way right into her hands, and things looked peachy.

And then they didn’t.

Covering a period which stretched from the final minute or so of the first quarter until halfway through the third quarter, Coupeville found new and creative ways to NOT make buckets.

The Wolves had good look after even better look, often thanks to aggressive work on defense, but the rim just wasn’t having it.

Shots popped up, rolled sideways, dribbled out, swirled around and died, and flat out refused to stay down.

CHS could only get two shots to drop through the net in the second quarter — a long jumper from Georges and a slashing layup from Smith off a run up the middle — and the Wolves were in trouble.

But not as much as they could have been.

The aforementioned aggressive defense, keyed by Smith slapping 1,001 balls out of the hands of Tiger guards, kept the Wolves close.

Also helping out was strong work on the glass from Davidson, Izzy Wells, and freshman brawler Carolyn Lhamon, and Coupeville went in to the locker room at the half trailing just 20-18.

Neither team could score for the first half of the third quarter, but for different reasons.

The Wolves still couldn’t get the rim to play nice, while Granite flat out couldn’t get a shot off, as Smith, backed by Avalon Renninger and Tia Wurzrainer, drove their ballhandlers batty.

The dry spell finally, mercifully ended some four minutes into the third frame, when Renninger, rolling to her left, lofted up a ball and banked it off the glass, earning a deep sigh of relief from her coach.

That seemed to bust things open, a bit at least.

Wells rolled under her defender for a bucket in the paint, Georges dropped a three-ball from the top of the arc, and Wurzrainer absolutely drilled a pull-up jumper once things started rolling.

But Granite wouldn’t break, converting a breakaway bucket to end the third, then slapping home another layup to open the final frame.

Up 30-27, the Tigers could see the victory.

Then again, they might want to check their vision.

Backs to the wall, the Wolves came through one more time, just as they have done again and again this season, pulling yet another victory out of the jaws of defeat.

Free throws knotted the game at 30-30, before Smith delivered the sucker punch, nailing a jumper just inside the three-point line after Prescott punched a ball free, then chased it down and fed her running mate.

Add another three-ball from Georges, a freshman who shoots like a senior, and a couple of sweet jumpers from wily veterans Prescott and Davidson, and the damage was done.

The furious finale capped a game in which seven Wolves tallied points.

Georges led the way with 11, while Smith (9), Davidson (7), Prescott (6), Wells (4), Renninger (2), and Wurzrainer (2) also filled up the scorebook.

Lhamon, Audrianna Shaw, and Kylie Van Velkinburgh also saw floor time for the Wolves.

The game marked a personal milestone for Davidson, as she became the 100th CHS girl to score 100 points during their prep career.

Her game-opening bucket was the big one, and with 105 points by night’s end, she now sits at #97 all-time for a modern-day Wolf program which began play in 1974.

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“I couldn’t be more proud of them!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged CHS Wolves, Ella Colwell, girls basketball, Granite Falls, JV on January 31, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Morgan Stevens and the Coupeville JV are 10-4 on the season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Take them down early and never let them back in the game.

That was the mindset Friday for the Coupeville High School girls JV basketball squad, as they roared out to a big lead and rolled to a 41-27 win over visiting Granite Falls.

With the victory, the Wolves improve to 6-2 in North Sound Conference action, 10-4 overall, with two games left on the schedule next week.

The JV squad hosts South Whidbey this coming Tuesday and La Conner Thursday.

In that second game, the young guns will have the solo spotlight, as the Wolf varsity has that night off as it preps for the playoffs.

Friday night, CHS jumped out to a 10-6 lead after one quarter of play, with swing players Anya Leavell and Audrianna Shaw each slapping home four points.

After that, the Wolves put the big hurt on the Tigers, riding an eight-point second-quarter explosion from Ella Colwell to shove the lead out to 25-11 by the half.

While the second half was an even fight — literally, as the teams played to 8-8 ties in both the third and fourth quarters — Coupeville coach Megan Smith was able to get floor time for 15 girls, including one making her debut.

Maylin Steele, a first-year player, has been practicing with the team and learning the game, but hadn’t suited up until Friday night.

On the floor for the first time, the Wolves got her the ball and she responded, dropping in a bucket to etch her name into the scorebook.

“It was truly an awesome moment for Maylin and the team!,” Smith said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them all.

“We played one of our best games yet! The girls came out swinging and never let down.”

Colwell finished with a game-high 12 points to lead the Wolf attack, while Leavell and Shaw backed her up, each finishing with six.

Alita Blouin (5), Gwen Gustafson (4), Abby Mulholland (4), Ryanne Knoblich (2) and Steele (2) also scored, with Natalie Castano, Claire Mayne, Jessenia Camarena, Heidi Meyers, Morgan Stevens, Kylie Van Velkinburgh, and Mollie Bailey seeing floor time.