Makana Stone is fast and she’s coming to steal all your rebounds. (John Fisken photos)
McKenzie Bailey works on her defensive stance under the gaze of Wolf coach David King. Bailey and Co. brought the defensive heat big-time Tuesday.
A trip to the state tourney begins one step at a time.
It’s a goal the senior-dominated Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad has talked about all off-season, during voluntary workouts and “fall ball” games.
The Wolves had the best record of any of the Island’s six varsity hoops teams last year, but they want more this season.
Like last spring’s CHS softball team, which broke a 12-year drought, they want to go back to the big dance.
And they looked like it Tuesday, opening their season with an emphatic 47-23 demolition of arch-rival South Whidbey on its home court.
Sparked by a monster game from junior Makana Stone, who scored 17 and ripped down 18 boards, the Wolves savaged the Falcons at every step.
Even better, they did it as a well-balanced team.
Stone was the centerpiece, but everyone did their thing, with eight of nine players scoring and eight of nine garnering at least one assist.
“We have talked as a team leading up to last night about being patient on offense and moving the ball,” Coupeville coach David King said. “I told the players after the game, this is probably the most patient team I have coached in a game offensively.
“We stayed spread, moved the ball and stayed within our strengths. By doing this we had many open shots,” he added. “Defense is still our strong suit and overall we didn’t disappoint. Once we made the adjustments in the low block we minimized the shots they got down low.”
The Wolves actually stumbled right out of the gate, committing turnovers on their first two possessions, before settling down.
Senior Hailey Hammer pumped home Coupeville’s first bucket of the season after getting “a great seal on her defender in the post.”
Smartly reading the play, Stone fired a pass over the top to her teammate, setting her up for an easy layup.
After that, it was off to the races, with five players scoring in the opening eight minutes and CHS jumping out to a 12-4 lead.
With the entire team sharing the ball and looking for the hot hand, Coupeville continued to stretch its lead.
Julia Myers netted a pair of sweet jumpers to spark things.
Despite an uptick in fouls (Hammer spent most of the second quarter locked to the bench), the Wolves surged to a 23-10 lead at the break, then broke South Whidbey’s spirit for good in the third.
Using stellar defense to overcome a brief bout of sluggishness on the offensive end of the court, the Wolves throttled South Whidbey 17-3 in the third.
Leading the charge was Stone, who scored nine of her game-high 17 in the quarter. Most of her buckets came off of offensive rebounds, as the silky smooth one flew high in the rafters, pulling down every last available carom.
King emerged happy with where his team was, and pleased with the effort he saw from one through nine. While there are a few things to tweak — no coach is ever 100% happy — he was pretty close.
“It was good to get our non-starters extra time (at the end),” King said. “Monica (Vidoni), Wynter (Thorne), McKenzie (Bailey) and Mia (Littlejohn) played well for us when called upon throughout the night.
“Each contributed in the win to go along with picking up where the starters (Stone, Myers, Hammer, Kacie Kiel and Madeline Strasburg) left off.”
Myers popped for eight to back Stone, while Vidoni (5), Hammer (4), Kiel (4), Thorne (4), Littlejohn (3) and Strasburg (2) rounded out the scoring chart.
With home games Friday (Darrington), Saturday (Bellevue Christian) and next Monday (Mount Baker) it’s time to make a statement. But first, a little fine-tuning.
“We have some work to do to continue to grow and get better. Blocking out is an area that hurt us and not being strong with the ball against a defender,” King said. “The players are working to see the floor and take advantage of what the defense is giving them and that reflected in our assists we had.
“The girls should be happy with the outcome and how well they played in this game,” he added. “Now it’s back to work tonight at practice and look to get better.”
Coupeville Sports 