Tenley Stuurmans turns on the jets. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
“We just need to do it for four quarters.”
As she pondered life post-game Friday night, Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball coach Megan Richter could see all the positives her squad showed against visiting La Conner.
But she could also see some negatives, and it was those down moments which sent the Wolves tumbling to a 43-30 loss.
Now 2-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 5-7 overall, the CHS girls are off until next Friday, Jan. 17, when they travel to Darrington for another conference rumble.
The bout against the Braves, coming in Coupeville’s first home game in three weeks, was a tense thriller for the first 12 minutes and change.
The Wolves came out with electricity rippling through their shooting fingers, netting back-to-back three-balls to open the game.
Teagan Calkins banked in the first one from the top of the arc, while Katie Marti splashed home a long rainbow from the right side to pass Hailey Hammer and become the 40th best career scorer across the 51 seasons played by CHS girls hoops teams.
The lead didn’t last long, as a jittery, skittery group of La Conner players who seemed to travel on every other play — without it being called — closed the opening quarter on a 13-3 tear.
But the Wolves weren’t going anywhere.
Marti drilled a jumper to open the second, Jada Heaton flexed her biceps with a putback off of an offensive rebound, and then Mia Farris zipped a truly beautiful pass through a forest of arms to set up Madison McMillan.
The ball arrived right on her waiting fingertips, the senior post player slapped home the layup while being smacked, and then she punctuated the play with a successful free throw.
That gave McMillan her 150th career point and pulled Coupeville within 18-16, setting off cheers from the crowd.
And then things fell apart. Big time.
The Wolves didn’t net another field goal from the mid-point of the second quarter to the mid-point of the fourth frame, with just two Tenley Stuurmans free throws during a 16-minute-plus dry spell.
That allowed La Conner to start pulling away, carrying a 29-16 lead into the half, before stretching things out to 38-18 by the end of the third.
And yet, Coupeville proved resilient.
The fourth quarter, or most of it, belonged firmly to the Wolves, as they clamped down on defense, then finally rediscovered their shooting touch.
Neither team scored for four-minutes-plus, until Haylee Armstrong tore off the bottom of the net, hitting her second three-ball of the game.
That sparked a 12-2 CHS surge, with Tenley Stuurmans pouring in seven of her team-high nine points during the frantic finale.
La Conner netted a last moment three-ball of its own to get the final margin back out to 13, but if you only watched the fourth quarter, you would have expected the Wolves to come away with the win.
Armstrong finished with six points to back up Tenley Stuurmans, with Marti (5), McMillan (3), Calkins (3), Heaton (2), and Farris (2) also scoring.
Danica Strong and Lyla Stuurmans rounded out the rotation, with the former hitting the boards with intensity and the latter using up every one of her available fouls as she harassed the Brave ballhandlers.
