Lauren Grove perfects her shooting touch. (John Fisken photo)
Now that’s how you play defense.
Holding visiting Mount Vernon Christian scoreless for the ENTIRE SECOND HALF, the Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball team romped to a 25-6 win Saturday.
Yes, you read that right. The visiting Hurricanes were unable to put a single, solitary point on the board after halftime, as the Wolves — minus four key players — got big-time nasty.
“Our defense was phenomenal!,” said Coupeville coach Amy King. “We harassed ball handlers, interfered with passes, forced turn overs and yes, they got shots up, but we didn’t allow them offensive rebounds or put backs.”
The Wolves were without McKayla Bailey (softball tournament) and McKenzie Bailey (injury) and swing players Monica Vidoni and Wynter Thorne were held out of the JV game, so they would be fully available to help a varsity team missing one of its captains.
Not that the absences made the slightest difference. Every one of the Wolf girls wearing a uniform chipped in, with Lauren Grove kick-starting the offense with a season-high nine points, outscoring MVC by herself.
“Lauren decided she didn’t want a close game so went on a little rampage,” King said.
With Grove raining down buckets — and getting help from her teammates, as six other girls scored — Coupeville jumped out to a 15-6 lead at the half. Than the Wolves went into lock-down mode.
“Seriously, our defense the whole game was solid,” King said. “The girls playing low on defense moved so well, coming up to help the wings, then dropping back low to protect the key … it was a thing of beauty.
“Emily (Coulter) started aggressively helping and others (Mattea Miller, Jenn Spark, Tiffany Briscoe and Kailey Kellner) followed,” she added. “All while the wings (Carlie Rosenkrance, Lauren, Erin Josue and Aura Corredor) put a hand in every shooters face.
“And you’re crazy if you think anyone could get into the key. Skyler (Lawrence) and Sophia (Jebrail) kept that closed up.”
With Rosenkrance sitting out the third, so she would have a quarter left to make her varsity debut later, Grove took over handling the ball. That took a slight bump, however, when she got in foul trouble.
“No other actual point guard to lead our offense, so I did the most logical thing … put in Emily as point guard,” King said. “She can handle the ball, she knows all the plays and she plays with confidence. Why not?
“She did great and said she never wanted to do that again!”
Kellner and Lawrence backed up Grove on the offensive end, each banging home four, while Rosenkrance, Miller, Jebrail and Spark all tossed in a bucket.
“Total team victory,” King said. “So much fun to watch!!”
