Tiffany Briscoe “stepped up and knocked down some big shots for us” Tuesday night, helping Coupeville nip Vashon Island. (John Fisken photo)
David King knows how the game is played.
The Coupeville High School girls’ basketball coach has been around long enough to know when to walk away and just be grateful.
You tuck a win in your pocket — like the Wolves 36-29 non-conference triumph at Vashon Island Tuesday — and you get your team to the ferry before anyone asks for it back.
Cause a win is a win is a win.
“I’ve never heard of a coach or team turning down an ugly win, and we won’t turn down our win tonight,” King said. “But is was not a pretty game for us.”
The third straight victory for the Wolves, it lifted them to 5-2, but it didn’t come easily.
Stuck in the middle of a stretch where they will play just one game in nearly a three-week span — Coupeville last played Dec. 11 when it beat Klahowya and won’t play again until Dec. 30 — the Wolves looked rusty.
“Tonight we played like we haven’t had a game in a week and a half,” King admitted. “It was a struggle all game, with an exception of about the first two minutes coming out of halftime.”
Both teams shot poorly in the early going, with Coupeville clinging to a 6-4 lead after one quarter and the teams tied at 15 at the half.
Despite getting numerous opportunities at the free throw line — the Wolves were in the bonus before the opening quarter was done — Coupeville couldn’t pull away.
A huge culprit was their cold shooting touch, especially at the charity stripe, where they hit on just 3 of 17 first-half attempts.
“We moved the ball well,” King said. “The problem was our shooting and not making the adjustments to their height.
“We drove, pulled up too close to a taller defender and tried to shoot over them,” he added. “They had three to four blocks in the first four minutes of the game.”
Once they started stepping back, the Wolves got their shots off, but spent most of the first half bouncing the ball off the rim.
“When we did get a clean shot up we started rushing and it was like shooting a beach ball into a cup,” King said. “Nothing was falling and many shots were way off.”
A couple of big second-quarter buckets from sophomore point guard Mia Littlejohn, and a team-wide show of aggressiveness, kept the Wolves close heading into the break.
Once there, King tinkered with a few things.
“At halftime we wanted to improve our defense, move the ball better on offense and improve our free throws,” he said. “We do those things like I believe we are capable, we take control of the game.”
And they did, in spurts at least.
Coupeville hit pay dirt immediately on the first play of the second half, with Makana Stone delivering “a great feed from the high post” to Tiffany Briscoe, who banged home a four-foot baseline jumper.
The Wolves used a run of steals to push the lead out to six, gave a bit back, then got a huge trey from Kailey Kellner to end the third.
Kellner stayed hot in the fourth, swishing a three-ball and converting free throws, including one on a technical foul called on Vashon’s coach.
The Pirates focused on slowing down Stone, who came into the game averaging nearly 19 points a game, and while the Wolf senior tallied a game-high 14, she had to earn every one of them.
A huge key to the win was getting solid scoring support from her running mates, and they responded.
Littlejohn banged home eight, Kellner dropped in seven, Briscoe hit for six and Lauren Grove added a free throw to round out the scoring.
King has been working with Briscoe, a ferocious rebounder and scrapper, to embrace becoming more of a scoring threat and the work paid off at Vashon.
“All game long Makana had two to three girls draped all over her when she was in the post. She had a battle all game long,” King said. “The good thing is Tiffany stepped up and knocked down some big shots for us.”
He also praised Littlejohn for doing “a great job of anticipating passes and getting some timely steals for us.”
While the win wasn’t necessarily one for the highlight reel, it was a win. Now the next week will go towards getting back into a groove.
“Tonight was a frustrating game and we have to get better if we want to continue winning,” King said.
“We have La Conner next Wednesday. They will be a very tough team and well disciplined,” he added. “We need to find our way again to the team that played our second through fifth games earlier.
“If we do that, we can compete with teams like La Conner.”
Coupeville Sports 