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Alone in first!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, big run, Kailey Kellner, Larry Bird, Madeline Strasburg, Makana Stone, Port Townsend on January 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Monica Vidoni, seen here in an earlier game, scored eight Tuesday as Coupeville romped to a 55-22 win. (John Fisken photos)

Wynter Thorne was a spark plug on both ends of the court.

It wasn’t always pretty, but it didn’t have to be.

Recovering quickly after a stagnant opening four minutes, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball team kicked it into another gear Tuesday night, crushing visiting Port Townsend 55-22.

The victory, the team’s fifth in its last seven games, lifted the Wolves to 7-4 overall, 2-0 in league play. CHS currently has sole possession of first place in the 1A Olympic League.

Coming off of what coach David King called “its best practice of the season” Monday, Coupeville somewhat surprisingly came out in a bit of a stupor.

Facing a winless Redhawk squad, the Wolves looked out of sync early and fell behind 7-2.

Then, whether it was words of wisdom in the huddle from a somewhat agitated coach or their own natural competitiveness resurfacing, the light clicked on for the Wolves.

In a big way.

Suddenly out-fighting and out-scrambling Port Townsend for nearly every ball, setting up a run of breakaway buckets, Coupeville went on a 40-3 tear that went from midway in the first quarter until the final minute of the third.

It started with a 15-1 surge to end the first, with five different Wolves scoring.

Coupeville then busted the game wide open with a 15-0 run in the second quarter.

Two plays in that streak stand out, one for its take-your-breath-away quality, the other for its sheer display of power.

On the first, Makana Stone soared high to snag a rebound, then spun and fired a baseball pass to Madeline Strasburg.

Catching the ball on her fingertips while in mid-sprint, Maddie Big Time spun her defender around 360 degrees, banked the ball off the backboard and then completed a three-point play when the dazed Redhawk was whistled for a desperate foul.

Two plays later, Wolf post player Monica Vidoni kept the ball alive, outreaching a wall of players to poke a rebound back to teammate Wynter Thorne.

Vidoni then called for the ball, got it back, put her shoulder down and made the best move of her high school career, rolling over two defenders and banking home the shot.

Not slowed a bit by the halftime break, the Wolves scored the first 10 points of the third quarter as well, capping a string of 25 straight CHS points.

Coupeville stretched the lead out as far as 36 points in the fourth quarter and took advantage of the blowout to give sophomore Kailey Kellner her first taste of varsity playing time.

The JV squad’s leading scorer, Kellner promptly went all Larry Bird on Port Townsend, draining a sweet three-point bomb from deep in the right corner, causing her large fan section to go bonkers.

Coupeville spread its scoring out, with Stone pumping in a game-high 19 and Strasburg bobbing and weaving for 14.

Vidoni dropped in eight, while Hailey Hammer (4), Thorne (4), Julia Myers (3) and Kellner (3) rounded out the scoring attack.

Kacie Kiel, Mia Littlejohn and McKenzie Bailey went scoreless, but all three chipped in with hustle and intangibles.

Coupeville now has a two-week break before it plays another league game.

The Wolves host South Whidbey Jan. 12, then travel to Mount Vernon Christian Jan. 17 for non-conference games, before beginning its run at a league title.

The team’s final seven games — starting with a a home game against Chimacum Jan. 21 — are all league games as CHS aims for its first league title since 2002.

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Wolves get a wake-up call!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged 1A Olympic League, Basketball, CHS Wolves, La Conner, Makana Stone on January 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone has averaged 15.1 points per game through the first half of the season. (John Fisken photo)

When they are on, they are as strong as they come. But when they are off, yikes…

The roller-coaster ride that is the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad continued Friday, but the plunge into the abyss wasn’t a pleasant one this time around.

Shredded by an undefeated La Conner team, the Wolves suffered their first true blowout loss of the season, falling 63-31.

The non-conference loss snapped a two-game winning streak and dropped CHS to 6-4.

With eight of its final 10 regular season games against 1A Olympic League rivals Port Townsend, Chimacum and Klahowya — teams with a combined record of 2-23 — Coupeville is primed to make a second-half run and possibly claim its first championship banner in a decade plus.

If…

“Maybe hearing and reading the hype about how good we should be has allowed us to be complacent,” said Coupeville coach David King. “At times I think the team has fallen into a sense of we are supposed to be good, so we don’t have to work hard and we will just go play and win.

“After the game we discussed what we need to do to get out of the rut we are in,” he added. “Wynter (Thorne) said we weren’t playing natural, not playing to our potential and forcing things. Julia (Myers) said we can’t just talk about improving and playing better, we need to go out and do it.

“The whole team agreed with Wynter and Julia. We also talked about going into practice and pushing each other to get better.”

Key number one will be getting back to sharing the ball. Normally a strong-passing team, the Wolves recorded a paltry four assists against La Conner.

That lack of ball movement blunted Coupeville’s advantage on the boards, where they hauled in 29 caroms. Makana Stone paced the way with 11, including five on the offensive end.

The Wolves looked like they would make a game of it in the early going, with Stone feeding Myers for the game-opening bucket.

Tied at six, things were looking good. Then, the Braves, who entered the contest at 8-0, exploded and the Wolves, who struggled mightily against a soft press, fell back, hard.

Racing out to a 37-13 halftime lead, La Conner had Coupeville so frazzled that the Wolves had more turnovers than points in the first half.

“Turnovers are really hurting us right now,” King said. “We can’t continue this trend moving forward. If we do we will see the same results like we did in this game.”

The Wolves rallied in the fourth quarter, the only time they played the Braves straight up.

“The fourth was our best quarter of the night,” King said. “We moved the ball well offensively, our defense was tough and almost matched La Conner point for point.

“In the second half we did a better job of holding onto the ball and lowered our turnover quantity,” he added. “Better but not good enough to compete with better teams like the Braves.”

Stone paced the Wolves with 13, while Kacie Kiel popped for six and the duo of Hailey Hammer and Myers dropped in four apiece. Monica Vidoni added three and McKenzie Bailey tickled the twine for a free throw.

Coupeville, which ended the game with two players (Madeline Strasburg and Thorne) on the bench with tweaked knees, gets a golden opportunity to get good right away.

Port Townsend (0-8, 0-1) comes to Whidbey Tuesday to kick off the second half. JV tips at 3:30 PM, varsity at 5:15.

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The thrill is back!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Injury, Maddie Big Time, Madeline Strasburg, Makana Stone on December 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Danger has returned. The electric current that sparks the Wolves, Madeline Strasburg, is back in uniform. (John Fisken photos)

Back in her natural environment, flying on the break.

“Ooh, this is gonna hurt you a lot more than it’s gonna hurt me!!”

With all due respect to her eight teammates, Coupeville High School senior Madeline Strasburg is the most electrifying player on the floor.

Makana Stone is the most talented Wolf hoops player, but Strasburg hits such highs and such lows, generally followed 0.3 seconds later by more immediate highs, that she is a show like no other.

Even as she had to sit out seven games with a leg injury, having only played in the season opener against South Whidbey, she was the most animated person in the gym.

Stalking the sideline like a wild animal (barely) caged, she made an excellent assistant coach.

Every one of “her” players, upon exiting the game, got a slap on the back, a kick to the butt or a soft pat on the head and a few quiet words of encouragement in their ear.

Even out of uniform, Strasburg walked the walk, talked the talk, screamed out the assignments and used every fiber of her being to will her teammates to victory.

Seeing her back on the court Monday against Vashon Island — she came off the bench and scored eight points while flying from end to end with wild abandon — was especially nice.

This is a young woman who once hit half-court buzzer-beating three-point bombs from the same spot on the court in consecutive games — 17 days apart.

Even if she never asked for it, she earns the nickname Maddie Big Time every single freakin’ game.

But it’s more than that.

Few people seem to really, truly love playing high school sports as much as Miss Strasburg does.

When she graduates, she will go out head high, knowing there was never a moment when she gave less than her all.

I wish every high school athlete would look at Madeline, see her joy and drive, the bounce in her step, and pledge to approach their career the same way.

You’ll never get these days back, so why waste even one?

Maddie embraces life, and athletics, in a bear hug and squeezes every bit of joy she can.

She is wild jubilation mixed with breath-taking danger out there. She is something to behold.

So glad to see her back where she should always be — having the time of her life.

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Bend, but don’t break!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Kacie Kiel, Maddie Big Time, Makana Stone, Vashon Island on December 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Wolf freshman Mia Littlejohn drilled a huge second-half three-point bomb Monday. (John Fisken photos)

Makana Stone, seen here in an earlier game, scored a team-high 15.

Bouncing back from a 10-day break and spurred on by the emotional return of Maddie Big Time, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad led from opening tip to final buzzer Monday night.

The resulting 44-37 non-conference win over visiting Vashon Island was the fourth victory in the last five games for the Wolves and lifted them to 6-3 on the season.

And, while it wasn’t a flawless game, it did capture Coupeville at its grittiest.

Three times the Pirates pulled to within a single point, before launching one final, furious 10-2 fourth quarter run, and, every time, the Wolves blunted their charge with big plays.

None might have been bigger than a dead-eye jumper from the team’s lone freshman.

Clinging to a 27-26 lead late in the third, Coupeville pushed hard to open things back up.

The aforementioned Maddie Big Time, senior Madeline Strasburg, back in the lineup after missing seven games with an injury, drove the ball hard at the hoop on a breakaway.

Her shot, taken under pressure, rolled off the rim at the last second, but Strasburg followed her ball and tipped it to Mia Littlejohn.

Trailing the play on the right side, Littlejohn took the second chance and made it count, pump-faking her defender off her feet before softly drilling the three-ball to stretch the lead back out.

That play ended up kicking off an 11-1 run that went from the final minute of the third deep into the fourth.

After not getting the lead out past eight all game, CHS suddenly found itself with its largest bulge at 38-27 when Wynter Thorne knocked down a driving jumper.

But Vashon, which hit five treys of its own, surged right back.

Coupeville put together an electrifying basket when Kacie Kiel kicked the ball half the length of the court to Strasburg, who spun under her defender and dropped it to an airborne Makana Stone, who rolled it off her fingertips for two.

Unfortunately, the Pirates put together a 10-point surge of their own around that lone Coupeville bucket, with back-to-back threes cutting the lead to 40-37.

But that’s where the bend, but don’t break, rule came into effect one final, convincing time.

Running the final two minutes off the clock, the Wolves put the game away with a give-and-go bucket from Strasburg and a put-back off a rebound from Stone, who out-jumped the Vashon defenders by a good five inches.

The rebound capped a stellar all-around effort for the Coupeville junior, who poured in a game-high 15 while setting up teammates with a string of precision passes.

Kiel, in particular, benefited, draining three straight jumpers in the first quarter as Coupeville bolted out to an 8-0 lead.

Vashon hit back-to-back three point bombs to get close, before Stone used a three-possession run to lay down the law.

First she threw down a short jumper, then spun and hit Monica Vidoni with the set-up for an inside bucket, before taking a steal the length of the court for a spinning layup.

The Wolves, who hadn’t played since a win at Orcas Island Dec. 19, had fresh legs and were enthusiastic, which helped balance out a couple of stretches of poor shot selection.

Strasburg, who had been operating as a vocal, if unpaid, second assistant coach since going down in the season opener against South Whidbey, was a jolt of energy.

She pumped in eight, tying Kiel for second-best, but her hustle and heart, including several times where she slammed to the floor in pursuit of loose balls, gives an already solid team the touch of danger it missed with her sidelined.

Littlejohn drained five in support of the big three, while Thorne (4), Vidoni (2) and Julia Myers (2) all chipped in.

Hailey Hammer pounded away underneath, collecting rebounds and one “ooh”-worthy rejection on a Vashon player, while McKenzie Bailey gave the Wolves a spark off the bench.

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The big bounce-back!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Dikembe Mutombo, Hannah Brunner-Gaydos, Julia Myers, Makana Stone on December 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Julia Myers, eyeballin’ fools whose shots she will have to block. It’s what Judy does. (John Fisken photo)

Wynter Thorne had a season-high nine in Friday’s road win.

They found their shooting touch quickly.

One game after struggling to put up 19 in an entire game, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad poured in 17 in the first quarter Friday at Orcas Island and never let up, romping to a 59-49 non-conference win.

“Our offense got back on track in a hurry from our previous game,” said a relieved Wolf coach David King.

The victory was the third in the last four games for CHS, and sent it into the Christmas break at 5-3 overall, 1-0 and tied for first in 1A Olympic League play.

Coupeville will be off for 10 days, not returning to the court until it hosts Vashon Island Dec. 29.

Shrugging off the long trip to Orcas, and the loss of two starters who fouled out in the fourth quarter, the Wolves rode the hot hand of Makana Stone, who poured in a season-high 22.

CHS needed all those points, as Stone’s total combined with Julia Myer’s 11 produced a dead-heat with Orcas’ best player, Hannah Brunner-Gaydos, who torched the Wolves for 33.

With the Viking sharp-shooter dropping in 22 of those points in the second half, Orcas was able to stay close.

The Wolves then lost Hailey Hammer to fouls with 5:18 to play, before Myers joined her three-and-a-half minutes later.

With starter Madeline Strasburg still out with an injury, Coupeville has just eight varsity players, making it less than desirable to lose two.

“We need to improve our defense,” King said. “We now have a little over a week to re-dedicate our defensive effort before we play Vashon.

“We are taking too many chances and not beating the offensive player to a spot. We are either a step too late on going for a steal or jumping at fakes and getting out of position,” he added. “This is putting the other four players on the court in a tough spot and giving the offense opportunities to score easy baskets or get to the free throw line.”

Coupeville finished the night with 22 fouls, with Stone one whistle away from joining Hammer and Myers on the bench.

Playing smart, though, she stayed out of trouble and came up big in crunch time.

“All game Orcas was in a diamond and one defense, putting a much shorter player on Makana defensively,” King said. “Makana was able to post these players up at times to score inside.

“An adjustment Orcas made was to double team her in the post,” he added. “She was able to knock down a 15-foot jump shot to combat the double team in the post; this is something she has been working hard to improve.”

Once Coupeville got the lead to 10, it kept its foot on the pedal, maintaining an 8 to 12-point spread for the rest of the game.

The Wolves meshed well, recording 15 assists (Kacie Kiel led with seven) on 27 field goals. The 59-point total was a season-best.

Wynter Thorne poured in nine to back up Stone and Myers, while Kiel (8), Hammer (5) and Mia Littlejohn (4) rounded out the scoring attack.

While it wasn’t a flawless game, it was a well-constructed victory.

“It wasn’t a clean or pretty game at times,” King said. “But we kept fighting and players stepped up, either knocking down a shot when needed or making a defensive stop when needed.”

He took a moment to call out two players, freshman Littlejohn and senior Myers, for their contributions.

“Mia is showing flashes of what she can bring to this team, especially as a point guard,” King said. “She is able to penetrate into the key and she has a good runner she can make. Or she is able to see an open teammate and make the correct pass.”

Myers, a defensive stalwart who has never met an opponent she can’t rock on their heels, delivered the night’s most impressive play.

“Her last block on the night was of the highlight reel variety,” King said. “An Orcas player had the ball in the short corner on the baseline, Julia was playing off a little; when the player went to shoot, Julia exploded and swatted it out of bounds.

“The Coupeville cheering section went crazy. A really nice momentum swing in our favor,” he added. “It reminded me of Dikembe Mutombo and his many blocks. The only thing missing was the finger wag.”

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