Capri Anter (30) and Adeline Maynes are part of a pack of talented younger hoops players who can return next season. (Jackie Saia photo)
“It was an absolute dog fight for 36 minutes!”
Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball coach Scout Smith had an up close and personal view of Tuesday’s playoff rumble between her Wolves and host Orcas Island.
And she witnessed a wild one, with both teams dropping daggers and pulling miracles out of thin air before the Vikings finally escaped with a 50-48 overtime win.
While the loss drops Coupeville to 5-15 and eliminates them from the District 1/2 playoffs a game shy of vying for a state tourney berth, Smith glowed with pride afterwards.
“It’s never fun to lose, but we can walk away from the game with our heads held high,” she said. “I am very proud of the way our team played and fought hard throughout the game.
“Each one left everything they had out on the court tonight.
“Credit to Orcas Island. They played a good game, and we made them work for that win.”
Coupeville’s win/loss record has been deceptive all season, with a young team coming very close to flipping the script in numerous narrow losses.
The Wolves squared off with the Vikings three times this season, and the margin of defeat in those games? Three, two, and two points.
Tuesday’s tilt opened in favor of CHS, which pulled out to an early 10-6 lead, with four different players hitting the bottom of the net — but not the one who would eventually lead the team in scoring.
A big three-ball from Teagan Calkins, setup by a rebound and pass from defensive dynamo Arianna Cunningham, was the main dagger, but then things took a big swerve.
As in the Wolves plunged off a cliff for a bit.
Orcas closed the first quarter with a bucket, then went off on a 14-1 surge in the second frame, momentarily making it look like this might be a blowout, and not in a good way.
Never fear, as Danica Strong wasn’t going out like that.
The Coupeville senior had spent the first half doing the dirty work, ripping down rebounds and swatting one wayward Orcas shot into the cheap seats, but after the halftime break, she came out ready to rain down pain.
Scoring all 15 of her points across the second half and overtime, Strong started tossing haymakers, and the Vikings got staggered.
The Wolves got back to within 26-24 midway through the third quarter but made their biggest moves in the fourth.
Back-to-back breakaway buckets off of steals by Haylee Armstrong and Tenley Stuurmans forced a 31-31 tie, before Strong powered her way through the paint to give the Wolves their first lead in a long time at 35-34.
With the clock ticking down, the teams exchanged buckets, with Orcas reclaiming the lead at the very end.
Cue an ice water in her veins moment from Armstrong, who knocked down a free throw with 13.9 seconds to play to knot things at 40-40, before CHS made one final defensive stand to force extra time.
Neither team was ready to go down easy in the four-minute overtime frame, with Strong netting a pair of free throws, Orcas surging ahead 45-42, then Strong nailing a game-tying trey from the right side.
The Vikings slipped back ahead on a pair of charity shots, before things got really dramatic.
Armstrong popped a three-ball on the move to stake Coupeville to a 48-47 lead, only to have Orcas gunner Sofia Mahony-Jauregui answer with a long-range rainbow of her own with under 30 seconds to play to set the final score.
Coming out victorious, the Vikings advance to play Friday Harbor Thursday in Mount Vernon in a winner-to-state, loser-out game, while the Wolves will turn their eyes to the future, when they can return eight of the 10 players from this year’s roster.
“We look forward to next season and bringing back so many young and talented players,” Smith said.
“We will definitely miss our seniors Danica and Teagan, but we are extremely grateful for their contributions to our program.”
Strong capped her run as a Wolf hoops star with a team-high 15 points, while Stuurmans, just a sophomore, banked in 14 in support.
Armstrong (8), Calkins (5), Cunningham (3), and Maynes (3) also scored, with Kennedy O’Neill and Lexis Drake seeing floor time.
As she exits, Calkins notches one final personal milestone, becoming the 26th Wolf girl to score 400 career points for a program launched in 1974.
“The Red Dragon” finishes with 402 points, while Armstrong, a junior, also hit a major mark. With 305 points and counting, she is the 39th CHS female player to crack the 300-point club.
Armstrong, who entered the season with 98 points to her credit, tallied a team-high 207 this season, the most any Wolf girl has scored across a single campaign in the last decade.
She and current JV coach Alita Blouin, who racked up 204 points during the 2022-2023 season, are the only 200+ female single-season scorers since Makana Stone nuked the nets for 427 points in 2015-2016.
Final season scoring stats:
Haylee Armstrong – 207
Tenley Stuurmans – 171
Teagan Calkins – 160
Danica Strong – 97
Arianna Cunningham – 53
Adeline Maynes – 47
Kennedy O’Neill – 44
Capri Anter – 8
Lexis Drake – 8
Sydney Van Dyke – 8
Coupeville Sports 