Maddie Big Time (with water bottle) is feeling it. “Give me the ball, dude! Give me the rock!! I am so on fire I can score with my eyes shut!!” (John Fisken photos)
The Wolf bench (or part of it, at least) celebrates.
David King’s favorite number is 13.
So, how perfect was it that the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball coach was up on his feet near the end of the game Friday night, still shouting words of wisdom while trying to stay composed and not grin in an unseemly manner as his team snapped a school’s 13-year dry spell.
Crushing visiting Klahowya 51-32 in a game they controlled from opening tip to final buzzer, the Wolves won for the sixth time in their last seven games and officially clinched the inaugural 1A Olympic League title.
Now 12-5 overall, 6-0 in league play, this Coupeville squad accomplished something no other Wolf hoops squad, girls or boys, has done since 2002.
And they did it with fire and passion, ten girls working as one nearly flawless unit.
Seven Wolves scored and every player made an impact on a night they will remember for a very long time.
There was a crackle in the air 45 minutes before tip-off, as senior Madeline Strasburg stormed from one end of the court to the other, slamming the ball against the hardwood, spinning around her teammates like a tornado unleashed.
Then the game tipped off and the tornado opened a can of whup-ass.
Throwing down 10 points in the opening quarter, including two three-point bombs and a line drive pull-up jumper that went down so hot it melted the net, Maddie Big Time presented a new wrinkle to Klahowya.
Injured and operating as an unpaid assistant coach the first time these teams met — a Coupeville win on the road in Dec. — Strasburg has the hop back in her step and the fire re-lit in her gut, and the frazzled Eagles were not prepared for her.
Toss in the fact nearly every shot was dropping for the Wolves in the opening eight minutes, and the game was all but decided at 20-3 by the time the first break came around.
Hailey Hammer banked home six points in support of Strasburg, while Julia Myers and Kacie Kiel each popped long jumpers from the side, as Coupeville dominated without getting a single point from its leading scorer.
That changed, in a hurry, when Makana Stone seized control of the middle chunk of the game.
Throwing down buckets left and right, the quicksilver junior poured in 23 points over the middle two quarters, scoring all but two of Coupeville’s points during that stretch.
Between Kacie Kiel snagging a ball out of the air and banking it home early in the second quarter and Strasburg hitting a free throw to open the fourth, Stone scored 22 consecutive Wolf points.
Her best play — and there were plenty to choose from — came when she snagged a rebound, turned and airmailed it the length of the court to a teammate out in front of the break.
But wait. There’s more.
The teammate, trying to veer around a scrambling defender, rolled the potential layup off the rim.
At which point Stone came flying through the paint untouched, having taken off at a dead sprint after throwing the outlet pass and covered the entire floor while the play unfolded, yanked the ball free and put the rebound home.
Jaws are still on the ground and may not be reattached for several days.
While the slam dunk choice for Olympic League MVP had her usual high-quality night, adding 13 rebounds, four assists and three steals to her two-quarter scoring explosion spectacular, every one of her teammates had their moments in the spotlight.
Monica Vidoni fought like a wild woman in the paint, hauling down six boards and forcing the Eagles to take most of their shots from the outside.
Wynter Thorne and McKenzie Bailey were aggressive ball-hawks, swing player Kailey Kellner dropped in a dead-eye three-pointer and freshman Mia Littlejohn swished a gorgeous little tear drop runner while elevating through the paint.
Hammer’s court presence and smarts, Kiel’s scrappiness and sheer joy at running the court, Myers’ defensive enforcement and the two-headed scoring juggernaut of Stone and Strasburg just put the cherry on top of the cake.
And, not to be forgotten, the wonder team of CHS coaches David and Amy King, who in less than three full seasons, have turned the Wolf girls into THE premier hoops program on Whidbey Island.
Together, ten young women playing as one, and the two coaches who have gotten them to buy into that idea, reached up to hoops heaven Friday night.
There are more games to come — three regular season games and pursuit of a perfect league mark — then entrance into the playoffs as a #1 seed.
Friday night was only a step on the journey, not the ultimate destination.
But what a sweet, sweet step it was for a team, a school, a town that hasn’t made that step in a very, very long time.
Coupeville Sports 