Makana Stone (far left) and teammates celebrate winning the Friday Harbor Tip-Off Classic. (Amy King photos)
Tiffany Briscoe (left) and a deeply excited Mia Littlejohn do some pre-game prep Saturday morning.
Lauren Grove (left) and Lindsey Roberts chow down after Friday night’s win.
Da champs.
“Our locker room was rockin’ after the win. Very vocal and a well deserved celebration!”
Having accomplished their weekend goal — bring home championship hardware from the Friday Harbor Tip-Off Classic — the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad went a little bonkers in the afterglow.
And that was fine with coach David King.
“We had a great start on Friday and an even better finish on Saturday!”
Garnering a little revenge and redemption along the way, the Wolves put together a defensive clinic Saturday, holding off arch-rival South Whidbey 31-27 to win the four-team tournament.
Friday Harbor beat Overlake 52-25 to claim third-place.
With two wins in as many days at the first in-season tourney the Wolf hoops program has attended in several years, Coupeville improved to 2-1 on the still-young season.
The title game win was a nice little bit of payback, as well.
The Wolves only loss so far came on opening night to the Falcons, when a last-second shot that would have forced overtime rimmed out.
South Whidbey came in confident, but they finished flat on the mat.
“In our pregame locker room talk, we could hear the chants and South Whidbey being very vocal in their pregame,” King said. “Our approach was to come into the game focused and get the job done that we came for.
“South Whidbey has a very good team and it’s always fun to compete against them,” he added. “We knew we had to make some adjustments from Wednesday to be able to come out on top.”
The Wolves spent some time in the morning watching video from opening night, and noticed a few things that allowed them to tweak their defense.
Then Coupeville came out on fire, yet calm and controlled.
Showing superb ball movement — a trait they displayed all weekend — the Wolves jumped out to a quick 9-1 lead.
Lauren Grove dropped back-to-back buckets to kick things off, before Kailey Kellner nailed a long trey and Makana Stone drilled a sweet jumper of her own.
“Lauren has been working extremely hard on making some adjustments with her shooting,” King said. “So far, in our first two games her shot hasn’t been falling like she had hoped, but today it did.”
South Whidbey managed to get back in the game by forcing a quicker pace to the game and flustering the Wolves a bit.
While Coupeville was still clamping down on defense, the Wolves picked up a few too many fouls and the Falcons took advantage, draining 7 of 9 at the charity stripe in the first half.
The Falcons continued to make runs at CHS, but a three-ball from Mia Littlejohn and a clutch basket from Stone at the end of the third staked Coupeville to a 25-22 lead headed into the fourth.
The final quarter was a defensive war — neither team scored in the first four minutes of the fourth — with several Wolves coming through in the final moments.
Littlejohn swished a huge trey, Kellner tickled the twines for a bucket and Tiffany Briscoe dropped a pressure-packed free throw as Coupeville refused to relinquish the lead.
While the very-young Wolves struggled at times on offense, they came through when it mattered.
“We are still a work in progress on offense, still learning how to be patient and play to our tempo,” King said. “But this weekend we showed glimpses of how good we can be when we are patient.”
And when the offense wasn’t working, the defense, led by Briscoe in full-on Dennis Rodman-mode, was there to win the day.
“Tiffany isn’t the tallest post player, but the desire and hard work she brings every day is second to none,” King said. “Even though she was undersized today she played tough defense and was on the floor whenever there was a loose ball near her.
“Yes, we need to score the ball to win, but without the effort from Tiffany today we probably don’t win.”
Everyone on the floor bought in on defense, with Grove and freshman Lindsey Roberts making a real impression on their coach.
“Lauren is a ball hawk on defense,” King said. “Lindsey was another player that stepped up and played very good post defense.
“She is still learning how good she can be; we have even talked about her becoming a shut down defender,” he added. “This weekend she stepped up and gave the same type of effort Tiffany did in the post.
“It’s great to see players step up throughout the lineup and contribute.”
Stone paced the Wolves with a double-double, scoring 10 and snatching 10 rebounds. She also had five steals, five blocks and two assists.
Kellner (seven points, three rebounds, three steals), Littlejohn (six points, three steals), Grove (four points, six rebounds), Tiffany Briscoe (three points, six rebounds) and Roberts (one point, five rebounds) rounded out the stat sheet.
Kyla Briscoe and Lauren Rose also saw quality floor time in the championship game, while Friday’s surprise hero, Allison Wenzel, was an enthusiastic bench presence.
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