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Posts Tagged ‘playoffs’

Audrianna Shaw and Co. lost Thursday to La Conner but get another playoff game Saturday on the road. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

The wheels on the bus go round and round, all the way to Tonasket.

After absorbing a 70-19 loss to La Conner Thursday in the title game of the District 1/2 tourney, the Coupeville High School girls basketball team gets a second chance at punching its ticket to state.

That game goes down Saturday at 1 PM and will pit the Wolves, now 9-8 on the season, against the Tonasket Tigers (15-7).

But first Coupeville has to travel 241 miles to Okanogan County, where it’s a crisp 29 degrees as I write this.

Saturday’s game is a loser-out, winner-to-state affair.

With Friday set as a travel day, Coupeville won’t have to pop off a bus and immediately open fire, instead getting a chance to camp out in the finest hotel the school system is willing to fund.

When the Wolves do hit the floor Saturday, goal #1 will be to get off to a quicker start than they did against La Conner.

The Braves, with eyes firmly set on competing for a 2B state title, got to 20-1 on the season by throwing down an avalanche of points.

The first 31 of the game to be exact, as La Conner busted out to a 28-0 advantage after one quarter, then nailed a three-ball to open the second frame.

That was the fifth of 10 treys the Braves hit on the evening, as they stung Coupeville inside, outside, and every which way.

The Wolves finally got on the board thirty seconds into the second quarter, thanks to a runner off the fingertips of Maddie Georges.

That sparked Coupeville’s one sustained run, as Ja’Kenya Hoskins banked in a shot from the paint, followed by freshman Savina Wells drilling the bottom out of the net on a long jumper from the side.

But a 6-0 mini-run, while nice, wasn’t going to be enough to catch La Conner, which stretched its lead to 42-8 at the half and 64-14 heading into the final frame.

Coupeville’s best play probably came on a defensive stand, with Georges scrambling back to continue her streak of drawing offensive charges from out-of-control rival ballhandlers.

Sliding into a narrow gap, the Wolf point guard planted herself and accepted the collision without budging a muscle, earning a hearty round of congratulations from her teammates as they hauled her back up off the floor.

Audrianna Shaw, who paced Coupeville with five points, made off with a couple of steals late in the game which she turned into breakaway buckets, while Georges chipped in with four points.

Savina Wells, Hoskins, Abby Mulholland, Lyla Stuurmans, and Izzy Wells added a basket apiece, with Carolyn Lhamon, Nezi Keiper, and Gwen Gustafson also seeing floor time for the Wolves.

“It’s how many miles to Tonasket???”

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Abby Mulholland (left) and Gwen Gustafson enjoy their evening. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

The tension rachets up during the playoffs.

That applies to both the basketball stars on the floor, and the photographers wanderin’ the baseline in search of snaps.

But John Fisken is a calm dude, and his camera rarely wavers, as shown in the pics above and below.

The images are from Tuesday night’s Coupeville High School girls win over visiting Auburn Adventist Academy, but are just the tip of what he shot.

To see everything Fisken captured on film, and possibly purchase some glossies for the grandparents in Grand Rapids, pop over to:

https://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Basketball-2021-2022/GBB-2022-02-15-vs-Auburn-Adventist-playoff/

 

Carolyn Lhamon, operating under the watchful eye of teammate Ja’Kenya Hoskins, powers in for a bucket.

Lyla Stuurmans makes it really hard for the ballhandler to see over the top.

Nezi Keiper rumbles in the paint.

“But I can’t jump as high as Savina Wells does…”

Ja’Kenya Hoskins would appreciate it if everyone stopped kicking her in the shins.

Izzy Wells, queen of in-close bank shots.

Audrianna Shaw whispers words of encouragement to the ball before shooting a free throw.

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Freshman Savina Wells poured in 12 points Saturday as Coupeville thrashed Friday Harbor on Senior Night. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

If it was a statement game, consider the statement delivered quite loudly.

Using a 26-0 rampage to blow things open Saturday, the Coupeville High School varsity girls basketball squad decimated visiting Friday Harbor 51-13.

The victory, coming in the regular-season finale and on Senior Night, lifts the Wolves to 6-4 in Northwest 2B/1B League action, 8-7 overall.

It also gives Coupeville a season sweep of the Wolverines and punches its ticket to the District 1/2 tourney.

As the second-seeded NWL 2B team, CHS opens districts at home Tuesday, Feb. 15 against Auburn Adventist (7-8) in a loser-out game.

Tipoff is 5:15 PM, and the winner advances to play La Conner (19-1) two nights later in the tourney title game, also to be played in Coupeville.

The Wolves went into action Saturday with a full roster, and a fair amount of emotion on display.

Seniors Abby Mulholland, Izzy Wells, Ja’Kenya Hoskins, and Audrianna Shaw were honored before the game, along with senior team managers Mckenna Somes and Leni Raduenz.

Both teams came out a bit offensively challenged, with the game sitting at 2-1 in favor of Coupeville more than two minutes into the game.

Friday Harbor then rifled a three-ball through the bottom of the net, giving the visitors their one, and only lead of the day.

At which point Coupeville coach Megan Smith nodded her head, ever so slightly, and her team went berserk.

It started with rebounds put back up and in by Izzy Wells and Carolyn Lhamon, and by the time it was done, Friday Harbor had gone scoreless for almost 13 minutes and the Wolves were up 28-4 with the halftime break bearing down.

The Wolves were ferocious on defense during the game-altering run.

Maddie Georges is a killer.

Shaw pilfered ball after ball, turning them into breakaway layups, while fab frosh Savina Wells emphatically rejected incoming shots thanks to her long reach and fingers o’ death.

Coupeville scored inside. It scored outside. It scored at will.

Whether it was Lhamon taking a pass from Savina Wells and powering her way through a thicket of defenders, or Shaw and Savina Wells draining back-to-back three-balls, Friday Harbor had no answer.

The Wolves crashed the boards with wild abandon, with Ja’Kenya Hoskins earning boisterous cheers from big sisters Jai’Lysa and Ja’Tarya.

Meanwhile Shaw and running mate Maddie Georges pestered the heck out of the Friday Harbor ballhandlers, driving them to distraction (and frequent turnovers).

CHS wasn’t done, either, truly putting the hammer down during a 21-3 tear in the third in which six different Wolves put the ball in the net.

Shaw rippled the nets on an elegant jumper, set up by the Wolves whipping the ball around the arc, from Hoskins to Izzy Wells to the wide-open shooter.

Then Savina Wells put on a demonstration of power and grace which bodes well for the future.

First she swished a three-ball from the right side — the net barely moving as the ball tumbled home to paydirt — then the freshman pulled off an eye-popping three-point play the hard way.

The youngest of the three Wells children drove the ball down the baseline, tossing up a high-arcing roller as she was being whacked from 2,000 different directions.

The ball skipped once, twice, three times, picking up paint flecks from multiple places on the rim, before plopping through in a moment which sent the Wolf boys hoops stars in the stands into hysterics.

Calmly flipping stray strands of hair behind both ears, Savina Wells eyeballed the Friday Harbor mashers who had tried to rearrange her face, then slid the dagger in, with the charity shot splashing home as her punctuation mark.

Though there was still one more epic moment to play out, as fellow frosh Katie Marti nailed a rainbow of a three-ball to provide Coupeville’s final points of the day.

The set-up for her trey?

Yet another offensive rebound from Savina Wells, who outreached the crowd to pluck the ball out of the heavens and deliver it to her fellow young gun.

Katie Marti rains three-ball death from the parking lot.

Coupeville had a very-balanced scoring attack, getting points from nine of 12 players to see the floor.

Shaw banked home 13, Savina Wells knocked down 12, and Izzy Wells, Lhamon, and Mulholland collected six points apiece.

Marti (3), Georges (2), Keiper (2), and Hoskins (1) also scored, with teammates Lyla Stuurmans, Mia Farris, and Gwen Gustafson bringing the heat on the defensive end of the floor.

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Logan Downes and Coupeville will carry a #1 seed into the playoffs. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

The Wolf boys, some seen here, are 14-0 heading into their regular season finale.

They get by with a little help from their rivals.

The Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball team didn’t take the court Wednesday night, but still achieved a major goal thanks to another squad.

Friday Harbor’s 66-41 win at La Conner guarantees the Wolves are the #1 seed to next week’s District 1/2 tourney and sends CHS straight to the tournament’s title game.

Coupeville, which has already won the Northwest 2B/1B League title, is 14-0 heading into its regular season finale Thursday at La Conner.

Playoff seeding, however, is determined by how the league’s three 2B schools do in games against each other.

The Wolves are 3-0 in that mini rumble entering their finale, while Wednesday’s loss drops La Conner to 1-2.

Friday Harbor, which was playing for its postseason life, is now 1-3, having split the season series with the Braves while being swept by Coupeville.

If CHS bounces La Conner Thursday — the Wolves won 54-26 first time out — the Braves and Friday Harbor will face off in a play-in game to decide the #2 boys seed from the NWL.

The district tournament, which is set to go down in Coupeville, opens Feb. 15 with Auburn Adventist playing the NWL #2 seeds in loser-out games.

The winners return to the CHS gym Feb. 17 for championship games, where the Wolf boys and (very likely) La Conner girls will await.

Win a district title and you also clinch a trip to the state tourney.

The losers of the district title games get a second crack at earning a ticket to the big dance.

The boys runner-up faces a team from District 4, while the girls runner-up squares off with a District 6 squad in winner-to-state, loser-out games either Feb. 19 or 20.

Coupeville’s league title was its first for the boys program since 2002, when current head coach Brad Sherman was still raining three-balls as a player.

The lone district title in program history came in 1970, while the last time the Wolf boys made it to state was 1988.

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Joey Lippo contemplates the end of the summer baseball season, while twin Skyy gets ready for a long day of cheering. (Connie Lippo photo)

It’s not the Stanley Cup, but it’ll do.

Coupeville grad Joey Lippo springs from a hockey-mad family, but Sunday night he and his relatives celebrated a baseball title in style.

Taking two wins on the final day of the season, with a big assist from the former Wolf, the Lynnwood Llamas captured the Cascade Collegiate League crown.

After thumping the Snoqualmie Chinooks 14-2 in the semifinals, Lippo and Co. edged the Salem Salamanders 6-5 in the championship contest.

The Llamas finish 16-6 overall, while playing in a six-team wooden bat league featuring players from NCAA and NAIA baseball programs.

Lynnwood entered the playoffs as the #1 seed, yet almost didn’t have a full roster at game time.

With many players already returning to college, only eight of 22 Llamas were in uniform, but the day was saved when a ninth player showed up right before the first pitch.

Once on the field, Lynnwood dominated in the opener, getting big home runs from Drew Biggerstaff and PJ Moritz.

Lippo lashed a three-run double to break things open, staking the Llamas to a 10-1 lead, then closed out the mercy rule-shortened win by pitching the final inning.

Getting his arm loose would come up big for the former Wolf, who came on to pitch five innings of relief in the nightcap.

Holding Salem scoreless for the first four of those frames, before tiring a bit in the seventh, Lippo left the mound with a 6-4 lead and earned the victory.

He scattered five hits, and his best inning came in the top of the sixth, when he used just four pitches to set the Salamanders down 1-2-3.

Lippo, who reached base three times in the finale, is now off to the fishing hole before returning to the University of Maine at Presque Isle, where he’ll be a sophomore.

Time to go fishin’. (Photo courtesy Teresa Besaw)

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