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Posts Tagged ‘Northwest League’

Blouin buzz-bombs Lions

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Alita Blouin is here to destroy you. (Delanie Lewis photo)

Alita Blouin is a dangerous woman.

Put a basketball in her hands, and the Coupeville High School senior will gut her rivals and leave them to bleed out on the side of the highway.

Metaphorically…

Leaving behind her real-life persona — where she’s serene and kind to human and animal alike — Blouin once again became Alita the Assassin Tuesday, raining down death from above on host Concrete.

Nailing five three-balls, while hitting from multiple angles, she went off for a season-high 21 points, leading nine Wolves into the scoring column during a 54-15 win.

The victory caps a brutal stretch of road games for the CHS varsity, which gets to 2-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 6-8 overall.

Now Blouin and her associates head home to face Friday Harbor this Friday, Jan. 27, in a game with big playoff implications.

Two of the three 2B schools in the NWL earn postseason berths, and the only games which influence Coupeville’s seeding are the ones with La Conner and Friday Harbor.

Currently, La Conner is 2-0 in the round-robin rumble, with both the Wolves and Wolverines sitting at 0-1.

Coupeville gets a home rematch with the Braves Feb. 7, before traveling to Friday Harbor Feb. 10 for the regular-season finale.

While Tuesday’s tilt didn’t have any impact on playoff dreams, it was a nice way to cap a four-game road trip where the first three games were against legit state title contenders.

The word of the night was defense, as Coupeville bolted out to a 29-0 lead, not allowing Concrete to score in the game’s first 13 minutes-plus.

The first quarter featured a pair of Blouin layups and a pair of jumpers from Lyla Stuurmans, before Maddie Georges utterly destroyed a defender on the final play before the break.

Sliding under the Lion, then juking her out to somewhere around Darrington, the Wolf point guard drilled a little runner and it was 11-0 and getting out of control.

Whatever hopes Concrete might have had vanished in the second quarter, with Coupeville raining down a season-best 29 points in eight minutes, stretching its lead to 40-4 at the half.

Blouin rippled the nets for a trio of three-balls, Stuurmans knocked down a series of buckets in the paint, and Gwen Gustafson exploded off the bench for a big quarter.

The Coupeville senior netted the 100th point of her varsity career on a free-throw, allowing Gustafson to join big sis Amanda Fabrizi (299 career points) in the three-digit club.

While the defense might not have seemed as important as before, as a running clock loomed on the horizon, the Wolves remained frisky.

None more so than sophomore Mia Farris, ripping down rebounds and soundly rejecting a Concrete shot to send her team into the locker room on a high.

Skylar Parker connected on a pullup jumper late in the third quarter to stretch the lead out to 40, while making some personal history at the same time.

It was the first varsity points for the CHS junior, as she becomes the 241st girl to score for a Wolf hoops program which launched in 1974.

For stat hounds looking for something besides points, toss Farris another hustle mark, as she drew an offensive charge late in the game.

Stuurmans finished the night with 11 points to back Blouin and her 21, while Gustafson banked in seven.

Georges (6), Katie Marti (2), Carolyn Lhamon (2), Parker (2), Ryanne Knoblich (2), and Farris (1) also scored, with Jada Heaton and Madison McMillan earning floor time.

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Wolves, rivals shoot for top dog status

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Gwen Gustafson drills a jump shot. (Karen Carlson photo)

The standings matter, and they don’t.

Case in point — while the La Conner boys currently have a slightly better conference record overall than Coupeville, it’s the Wolves who would be the Northwest League’s top seed to the 2B playoffs.

That’s because of the split nature of a 2B/1B league, where three schools are from the former, and four from the latter.

When the postseason begins, seeding is only based on games between schools at the same level.

That’s why Coupeville’s boys, who beat La Conner the first time out, are 1-0 in the three-team, four-game rumble which matters the most.

The Braves are 1-1, with Friday Harbor at 0-1.

On the girls side of things, La Conner is 2-0, with Coupeville and Friday Harbor sitting on 0-1.

Two of the three 2B schools earn a playoff ticket, with plenty of big games between now and the regular season finales Feb. 10.

The week ahead offers a mix of games for Coupeville, with the Wolves travelling to Concrete Tuesday, Jan. 24, before hosting Friday Harbor Jan. 27.

With three weeks left in the regular season, a look at current win/loss records:

 

Northwest League boys basketball:

School League Overall
MV Christian 5-0 13-5
La Conner 3-1 7-7
Orcas Island 3-1 12-6
Coupeville 2-2 9-6
Friday Harbor 1-2 2-11
Concrete 1-5 3-11
Darrington 0-4 3-11

 

Northwest League girls basketball:

School League Overall
MV Christian 5-0 16-2
La Conner 4-0 11-3
Orcas Island 3-1 6-8
Friday Harbor 1-2 3-8
Coupeville 1-3 5-8
Darrington 1-3 8-5
Concrete 0-6 1-13

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Rough night, better days ahead

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Cole White rained down jumpers Friday night. (Andrew Williams photo)

A bump in the road.

Friday night’s loss at Mount Vernon Christian stings, but it’s not fatal for the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team.

Facing a Hurricane team which seemed unable to miss all night, the Wolves fell 73-53, snapping a four-game winning streak.

For the moment, the loss drops Coupeville to 2-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 9-6 overall.

But the silver lining is MVC is a 1B school, and the Wolves rep a 2B program.

So, while the Hurricanes earned a split in the team’s two-game series, this is the last time the squads will play this season.

Coupeville, which won the first time the schools squared off, still controls its own playoff destiny, as only its games against fellow 2B rivals La Conner and Friday Harbor decide who makes it to the postseason.

With one matchup against the Braves, and two against the Wolverines still ahead on the schedule, the Wolves head to Concrete Tuesday to face a 3-11 Lions team.

For CHS coach Brad Sherman and his team, basketball offers the reprieve of not having to wait long for the next game.

A day off Sunday, a day of practice Monday, and then back to the hardwood.

Coupeville didn’t play all that badly against MVC, matching them with five three-balls and getting big performances from its role players.

Problem is, the Hurricanes just had one of those nights when everything they threw up in the air seemed to catch the rim just right.

Once the Wolves were trailing, they would slice a bit here, a bit there, only to see MVC deliver yet another dagger in front of its home fans.

With Cole White popping for a quick five points in the early going, Coupeville led 11-9 heading towards the first break.

Then the Hurricane(s) hit and hit hard.

Using a 6-0 run to claim a 15-11 lead at the first break, MVC stretched its advantage out to 36-24 by halftime.

The Hurricanes clamped down on Coupeville’s leading scorers, Logan Downes and Alex Murdy, but the Wolves got help from the bench.

Nick Guay tossed in three buckets during the second quarter, while Zane Oldenstadt, normally a defense-first big man, connected on back-to-back jumpers to give CHS a fighting chance.

Zane Oldenstadt (far right) played strongly on both ends of the floor against Mount Vernon Christian. (Delanie Lewis photo)

Coupeville got the lead down to seven at 45-38 late in the third quarter on a White pullup jumper, but the ‘Canes responded immediately.

Same thing in the final frame, as the Wolves cut a 12-point deficit to eight, only to have MVC go on an 8-0 run.

Another late Hurricane surge, this one 9-0, made the final score seem like more of a blowout than the game really was.

White paced the Wolves with a varsity career-high 15-point performance, while Guay tossed in 13, and Downes added 12.

Alex Murdy (7), Oldenstadt (4), and Dominic Coffman (2) also scored, with Jonathan Valenzuela, William Davidson, Chase Anderson, and Ryan Blouin seeing floor time.

Liam Millenaar led MVC with 23 points, with Billy DeJong knocking down 18 in support.

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Wolves weather Hurricanes rainin’ down pain

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Maddie Georges fights for a loose ball. (Karen Carlson photo)

First, some good news.

The Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball team was back at nearly full-strength Friday, with senior Carolyn Lhamon back in the lineup after missing a chunk of games while tending to a foot injury.

The Wolves most-imposing presence in the paint, she could be a big help down the stretch, as CHS chases a playoff berth.

Now, the bad news.

While Lhamon played strongly in limited minutes, there’s not much she, or any of her teammates could do to slow down host Mount Vernon Christian.

Playing on Senior Night and unveiling their state title banner from last season, the Hurricanes buried eight three-balls en route to a 62-17 win over the visiting Wolves.

The loss drops Coupeville to 1-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 5-8 overall.

The game caps a brutal stretch of three-straight road games against championship contenders, coming on the heels of contests against MVC’s fellow state powers, Neah Bay and La Conner.

While Coupeville hits the bus one more time to kick off next week, that trip will to be to Concrete Tuesday, to face a 1-12 Lion team.

Not the same thing, you would assume.

Facing off with MVC, the Wolves did stay scrappy in the first quarter, just like the first time these two squads played.

Lyla Stuurmans hit a driving layup, off a feed from Maddie Georges, to knot the game at 2-2, and the Wolves were still within 8-3 in the final moments of the first quarter.

Unfortunately for Megan Richter’s team, that was where the Hurricanes began to assert their dominance, both in the paint and from behind the arc.

MVC closed the opening frame with a three-ball, then broke the game open with a 15-0 surge in the second quarter, a run which featured one layup after another.

Georges popped a three-ball to stop the bleeding for a moment, with Lhamon rolling through the paint shortly after for a layup of her own, but the game slipped away fast.

The Hurricanes closed the half with a 12-2 tear, raining down four three-balls in a row, the final one beating the buzzer by .00001 of a second.

MVC kept its magic alive in the third, again nailing a buzzer-beating trey, this one pushing the lead out to 40 points and setting off a running clock across the final eight minutes.

Coupeville played aggressively on defense to the end, with Stuurmans collecting a block, but was only able to score on back-to-back possessions once in the game.

Ryanne Knoblich paced the Wolves with a team-high six points, with Georges (5), Stuurmans (3), Lhamon (2), and Gwen Gustafson (1) also scoring.

Alita Blouin, Mia Farris, Katie Marti, Jada Heaton, and Skylar Parker also saw floor time for CHS, with Marti bouncing off said floor 9,271 times while doing her best to slow down Mount Vernon’s imposing post players.

Katie Marti eyeballs the defense. (Delanie Lewis photo)

In a side note, Georges, a senior point guard, passed one of Coupeville’s coaches on the all-time scoring chart Friday night.

Now sitting with 321 points, she nudges past Wolf assistant Mia Littlejohn (317), and is tied with Marie Grasser at #34 all-time for a program launched in 1974.

For you youngsters out there, Marie Grasser — the first true CHS girls’ basketball star — is known as Mrs. Bagby these days, the same Mrs. Bagby who you used to see every day in the school office.

The more you know.

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Tough loss, plenty of grit

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Ryanne Knoblich (front) and Mia Farris put up a good fight Wednesday at La Conner. (Karen Carlson photo)

Look, it wasn’t the best of nights.

Playing the middle game in a run of three straight road bouts against state title contenders, the Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball squad got roughed up a bit Wednesday at La Conner.

The score, which came out in favor of the host Braves to a 72-16 tune, stings.

The loss drops Coupeville to 1-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 5-7 overall, heading into a Friday trip to Mount Vernon Christian to face the defending 1B state champs.

Tack on a lopsided loss to Neah Bay in their most-recent appearance on the hardwood, and the Wolves are in endurance mode, pushing through with an eye on the schedule getting a little more balanced after they get through this week.

And yet, while CHS, playing without its best rebounder in injured Carolyn Lhamon, struggled to mute La Conner’s advantage in the paint, there were bright spots.

None bigger than a play late in the game from Lyla Stuurmans.

Back on the floor after missing the Neah Bay game, the springy sophomore pulled off a move which captured the Wolves gritty spirit even in the face of adversity.

Coupeville trailed by 55, there were less than three minutes to play, and La Conner had yet another breakaway rolling.

Instead, Stuurmans, still fighting, just like the other four Wolves on the floor, sprinted the length of the floor, slid in front of an oncoming Brave at the last moment, planted herself, and absorbed a bruising blow.

Selling it to the refs while bouncing off the floor with a grimace, the defensive dynamo got the call, the ref emphatically signaling an offensive charge on La Conner.

It wasn’t a play to win a game.

It wasn’t a play that could change much of anything by itself.

But it’s the kind of play every coach worth their salt wants to see a young player make.

Ignore the clock, ignore the score, and execute selflessly.

Do it down 55 with under three to play, and you’re likely to make the same play in the heat of a much-closer game at crunch time.

It’s a building block, and one Stuurmans, her teammates, and her coaches, can look at and say, with pride, “This is how we play, every play.”

La Conner’s top players are seniors, the Coupeville varsity is giving plenty of floor time to a strong group of sophomores, and the Wolf JV beat the Braves JV Wednesday night.

Things can change, life comes at you fast, and sometimes stepping in front of an oncoming semi-truck on the hardwood is the key to starting a renaissance.

Stuurmans’ fellow sophomores also had their moments against the Braves.

Mia Farris led Coupeville in scoring, knocking down three buckets under duress to account for six points, while Katie Marti scrapped in the paint, relentlessly chasing rebounds and rolling through the paint for a bucket of her own.

Madison McMillan and Jada Heaton, along with junior Skylar Parker, all saw floor time late in the game, as well, showing no fear — always a good sign.

Coupeville’s seniors didn’t back down, either, with Alita Blouin splashing in five points in support of Farris, while Ryanne Knoblich (2) and Gwen Gustafson (1) also scored.

Wolf seniors Alita Blouin (left) and Maddie Georges contemplate roughing up the refs. (Karen Carlson photo)

Point guard Maddie Georges, playing on the birthday of older brother Alex Evans, put up a spirited fight, zipping passes left and right and knocking down the best shot of the game.

Unfortunately, the refs, being sticklers for upholding the rules, declined to count the bucket.

Racing up court in a bid to beat the buzzer at the end of the first quarter Georges drilled the bottom of the net out on a shot released from just inside the halfcourt line.

The ball arced high, kissed the glass, and flipped through the net.

But the shot clearly left Georges fingers after the buzzer sounded, so there wasn’t much point in arguing about the ref waving the three points off the scoreboard.

Still, it was a pretty, pretty shot, something even the officials seemed to acknowledge.

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