Freshman Lindsey Roberts scored six of her career-high nine points in the fourth Monday. (John Fisken photos)
Mia Littlejohn, seen here in an earlier game, dealt out a game-high eight assists at Mount Baker.
While it would have preferred a win, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad came away from Monday’s defeat at Mount Baker looking like a pretty dang good team.
The host Mountaineers stayed undefeated at 4-0 by holding on at the end for a narrow 50-47 victory, but the Wolves, behind ferocious performances from Makana Stone and Mia Littlejohn and a breakthrough one from freshman Lindsey Roberts, proved they won’t go down easily.
Despite trailing by 15 at one point and beset by a team of highly proficient long-range gunners, Coupeville (2-2) rallied and had a chance to send the game into overtime.
Both of their losses so far have come against teams with winning records, and, in both, the Wolves were a shot away from forcing an extra period.
“This game was a good building block for us. Mount Baker is a very good team that can shoot the ball well,” said CHS coach David King. “We just need to play a full 32 minutes.
“As a team we now know we can compete with the very good teams,” he added. “We make a few more free throws, maybe get back a few turnovers or have the ball bounce our way a time or two and we could have won this game.
“It’s still very early, but these players are showing that they won’t quit despite the score.”
In its previous game, Baker had crushed Coupeville’s 1A Olympic League rival, Port Townsend, 74-16 and the Mountaineers came out hot, dropping nine treys on the Wolves.
Baker led 17-12 after one, but Coupeville fought back to cut the deficit to just one by the half.
Tiffany Briscoe netted a bucket right at the buzzer, off of a feed from Litttlejohn.
The start of the third quarter was a bit of a disaster for the Wolves though, as they came out “flat and two steps slow.”
Down by 15 in a blink of an eye, the Wolves rallied behind Stone, who had “one of the best games of her high school career” and surged back.
The final eight minutes of the game was the best stretch Coupeville put together all night.
“The fourth was a complete quarter for us,” King said. “Our defense raised the bar and clamped down and caused some turnovers.
“If we can bring the effort we had in the fourth, along with the beginning of the first and the latter parts of the second and third, then we will be a team that will be hard to beat.”
Stone threw down 23, snatched 14 boards, pilfered three steals and dealt out two assists while Littlejohn had five points, eight assists and two rebounds.
Roberts, who had netted two free throws in her first three high school games, came alive on the offensive end, scoring six of her career-high nine in the fourth quarter.
Tiffany Briscoe was a solid presence down low, with six points and five boards, while Kailey Kellner netted three points to go with her six assists and four rebounds. Kyla Briscoe swished a free throw to round out the scoring attack.
With a young team — Coupeville only returned three girls, two who were full-time players, from last year’s league title winners — King has been pleased to see constant growth.
Key to that has been his veterans leading the way.
“Mia has stepped up with her leadership and Makana probably played one of her best games in her high school career,” he said. “We were happy with the effort and growth we played with during the game.
“That said, we weren’t satisfied with the outcome. We will get right back at it today and look to shore up some things and continue to fight and push to get better,” King added. “The way we are sharing the ball on offense and working on defense are things we have been looking for.
“Each player is putting team first and it shows in how they have come out in these early games so far.”
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