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Posts Tagged ‘winning streak’

Can’t stop the express train!!

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , , , on January 9, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Wolf grad Makana Stone and mom Eileen goof around after a Whitman College basketball game earlier this season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The appetizer went well. Now on to the entree.

Taking care of business Tuesday, the red-hot Whitman College women’s basketball squad crushed visiting Whitworth 101-68, claiming its 13th straight win.

With the victory, the Blues and their super sophomore, Coupeville grad Makana Stone, are 13-1 overall and sit alone atop the Northwest Conference at 5-0.

Now it’s on to the big brawl, with George Fox (11-2, 4-0) coming to Walla Walla Friday for a first-place showdown.

It’ll be a clash of titans, with the visitors on a hot streak of their own, having won nine straight.

Facing a Whitworth squad hovering around .500 on the season, Whitman unleashed its two-headed beast, with Stone and All-American Casey Poe each going off for 21 points.

Stone added nine rebounds and two assists, while the 21 points was a college career-best, topping the 20 she scored against LaVerne earlier this season.

Whitman crept out to a 27-20 lead after one quarter, then turned up the heat in the second, using a 24-12 surge to put the game away.

For the season, Stone has 187 points, 88 rebounds, 31 assists and nine steals, and leads the Blues in both scoring and rebounding.

She’s also shooting an electric 60% from the field on 82 of 136.

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Late run falls just shy!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 12, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Lindsey Roberts had nine points and 10 rebounds Tuesday in a loss at Port Townsend. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They haven’t been here before.

After three seasons in the penthouse, the Coupeville High School girls basketball team will have to fight its way from the ground floor up if it wants to win a fourth-straight Olympic League crown.

With one starter missing Tuesday and another forced to sit out a chunk of the game with an injury, the Wolves fell 38-32 at Port Townsend, ending the second-longest winning streak in league history.

Coupeville had won 27 straight conference games, finishing 9-0 in each of the first three seasons of the four-team league.

That was two shy of Klahowya girls soccer, which is 29-0 over four seasons.

Now an uncharacteristic 0-1 in league, 1-6 overall, the Wolves still have two-thirds of their season ahead.

They’ll also have some time to continue seeking their groove, which has been a bit elusive while trying to deal with the loss of four starters from last year’s team.

CHS will play four straight non-league games next, not returning to conference action until Jan. 6. The Wolves close with eight of their final 10 against league foes.

For the moment, Chimacum sits atop the standings at 1-0, followed by Port Townsend (1-1), Klahowya (0-0) and Coupeville (0-1).

When they do return to league play, the goal will be to bring the same intensity the Wolves showed in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s game.

Having absorbed a 13-0 beat-down in the third quarter, Coupeville was sitting with just 14 points heading into the final eight minutes. They responded in style, scoring 18 and almost catching the RedHawks.

“Something happened to start the fourth. The game we had prepared to play showed up,” said CHS coach David King. “Instead of being the prey we became the predator.

“We had them on their heels, but time doesn’t stop and we ran out of it tonight.”

Employing an aggressive defense, Coupeville forced numerous turnovers in the fourth, then drove straight at the heart of Port Townsend’s own D.

It worked, as the Wolves got some easy buckets and also went to the free throw line on a regular basis.

The biggest beneficiary was Lindsey Roberts, who knocked down five of six at the charity stripe down the stretch.

Coupeville closed to within 36-32 with a minute and a half left in the game, only to have its shots fail to drop down the stretch.

The game opened as a struggle of wills, with both teams having trouble getting anything to stay in the bucket.

The Wolves were hurt by the loss of Kyla Briscoe, who went down early with a knee injury. While she returned later in the game, losing their starting point guard for a chunk threw off the rotation.

With Briscoe on the sideline, sophomore Scout Smith stepped in and ran the team smartly, while others helped fill the gap.

Roberts, who finished with nine points and a team-high 10 rebounds, “played outstanding on both ends of the court” while Mikayla Elfrank torched the RedHawks with 10 points, seven steals and six rebounds.

The team’s leading scorer with 78 points in seven games, Elfrank has passed 28 former Wolves this season, and now sits #51 on the CHS girls basketball career scoring list with 206 points.

Ema Smith drilled a pair of jumpers and was a flawless 3-3 at the line to score seven points, while Sarah Wright “played one of her best games” with five points and five rebounds.

After struggling at the free throw line in recent games, CHS had its best performance of the season Tuesday, hitting 10-15.

Allison Wenzel hauled down four rebounds, while youngsters Chelsea Prescott and Avalon Renninger earned significant playing time in the second half.

Prescott, a freshman, netted a free throw for her first varsity point.

“We had players stepping up and taking on roles they hadn’t expected when the day started,” King said. “I was very proud of the players that showed up today.

“We talked about commitment and playing for each other,” he added. “I’ll take a group of players like that every day.”

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Absorb the lesson, come back stronger!!

Posted in Girls Soccer, tagged , , , , on September 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   In his first season at the helm of the CHS girls soccer program, Kyle Nelson has the Wolves sitting in second-place in the Olympic League. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

“We found out how high the bar is.”

Coupeville High School girls soccer coach Kyle Nelson was philosophical Tuesday night, softly shaking his head as, behind him, the scoreboard reflected a 9-0 final in favor of visiting Klahowya.

The Eagles have never lost in Olympic League play, with the latest win running their streak to 24 straight, three shy of Coupeville girls basketball, which sits 27-0 all-time.

Klahowya, 1A state champ in 2014, is intent on making a run at a third title (it also won in 1999) and is a top-tier team, with a high-powered offense and a stifling defense.

Now 4-0 in league play, 6-0 overall, the Eagles, who have outscored their foes 38-2, sit a game-and-a-half up on Coupeville (2-1, 4-4).

Port Townsend (1-2, 2-4), which hosts the Wolves Thursday, and Chimacum (0-4, 0-5) bring up the rear in the four-team league.

While absorbing a lopsided defeat is never fun, it can be educational.

“We need to know what we’re aiming at,” Nelson said. “Beating a team 8-0 doesn’t tell you a whole lot. Losing like that, it doesn’t feel good, but it tells you a lot more.

“We put in a team effort, and we’re working on communicating, recognizing things as they happen and responding,” he added. “We are continuing to improve as the season goes, which is the goal.”

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Grind it out!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »

(John Fisken photo)

   David King has the Coupeville girls flying high at 13-3, winners of nine straight. (John Fisken photo)

No quit in these Wolves.

Overcoming fatigue, a short-turnaround and the danger of overlooking a cellar-dwelling team they had just drilled four days prior, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad took care of business Saturday afternoon.

Playing methodically, and turning up their vaunted defense to a higher level in the second half, the Wolves romped past visiting Klahowya 37-19 to pull within a win of completing their third straight undefeated league season.

Now sitting at 8-0 in Olympic League play, 13-3 overall, Coupeville has won nine straight.

The Wolves have a unique home-and-away non-conference series with Sequim Monday and Thursday, then close the regular season at home Feb. 4 against Port Townsend, where they will make a bid to improve to 27-0 all-time in Olympic League play.

After that comes the playoffs, which don’t start until Feb. 14.

Coupeville, as a #1 seed, will begin in the double-elimination portion of districts, needing two wins to return to the state tourney.

Saturday, the Wolves were playing their second game in less than 24 hours, having knocked off Chimacum Friday night.

Many of the Wolves were back in the gym at 8:15 Saturday to coach and ref youth basketball, before taking the floor for an early 12:30 tip-off.

Fatigue seemed to catch up to CHS in the early going, as it weathered crisp shooting from Klahowya’s Amber Bumbalough and held just a 9-7 lead after the first quarter.

“The first quarter was a struggle,” said Wolf coach David King. “Many of our jump shots were short (tired legs); we just didn’t have the lift needed in the legs, even though the mind told us differently.

“What kept us in the quarter was our offensive rebounds and put backs.”

Things began to take a turn for the better in the second, as Coupeville shied away from long jumpers and attacked the basket en route to a 12-6 advantage.

Despite being up 21-13 at the break, the Wolves rallied together as a team in the locker room, pledging to put the game away.

“The great thing at halftime was the whole team wasn’t satisfied with our halftime lead or our effort,” King said. “They knew we could play better in the second half.”

And they did, using a 14-2 surge in the third to take the last bit of fight out of Klahowya.

Key was going to a press on defense, which triggered a number of easy buckets off of turnovers.

The Wolves were quick to back each other up on defense, something which brought a smile to their coach’s face.

Whether it was Lindsey Roberts alertly moving to pick up a player after a teammate slipped, or Tiffany Briscoe sliding over to shut-down Roberts original rival, the Wolves were firing as a group, five players working as one.

That carried over to the offensive end, where several players stepped up to have one of their better shooting performances of the season.

Junior Mikayla Elfrank pumped in a game-high 11, while speedy Kalia Littlejohn knocked down eight and Roberts banked in seven.

Briscoe (3), Mia Littlejohn (3), Kailey Kellner (3) and Sarah Wright (2) rounded out the offensive attack.

“Every game we have players stepping in and up to help with the scoring,” King said.

Roberts also hauled down 10 boards, while Lauren Grove added four rebounds and three steals. Both Littlejohn sisters doled out three assists apiece.

While he would like to work on cleaning up some areas (free throws and minimizing turnovers), King likes the grit he sees from his players.

“This team never quits,” he said. “Never thinks they are out of a game if down or if our lead starts to shrink.

“They are unflappable! They refuse to lose.”

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“This team is resilient!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Sarah Wright (John Fisken photo)

Sarah Wright gave Coupeville a third-quarter spark as it rallied to beat Chimacum Friday night. (John Fisken photo)

“We did what we had to, to grind out a win.”

Refusing to bend or break, even after a brief fourth quarter meltdown, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad righted the ship and sailed back home from Chimacum Friday bearing a 42-33 win.

The victory, the team’s fourth straight, lifts the Wolves to 8-3 overall, 4-0 in Olympic League play.

Now a flawless 22-0 in conference play over the past two-and-a-half years, Coupeville is a game-and-a-half up on Port Townsend (2-1) as it seeks its third straight championship banner.

Chimacum (1-3) and Klahowya (0-3), which lost its best player, Maya Ladner, to a season-ending injury this week, bring up the rear.

To keep the league winning streak intact, the Wolves had to overcome an 18-point night from Cowboy star Mechelle Nisbet and a serious stumble down the stretch.

Having rallied to take the lead, Coupeville stretched the margin out to 12 at 35-23, then had what Wolf coach David King termed “a brutal 40-60 seconds.”

How brutal?

When he went to look at the film this morning, he was shocked to find it was more like a 20-second burst of badness, so epic it seemed to last for twice as long in his original memory.

“The wheels fell off and we just lost our way a little,” King said.

An offensive foul during a scramble for a loose ball, a technical on CHS for crossing the line and touching the ball on an in-bounds play, two uncontested layups around a Wolf turnover. Madness.

But Coupeville didn’t get to the top of the league without building some toughness, and the Wolves immediately responded in a manner that cheered King.

“We could have let that get us down, but this team is resilient,” he said. “Brushed it off and regrouped and went back to work playing our brand of basketball.”

Kailey Kellner knocked down a “huge” baseline three-ball, then Kalia Littlejohn, the feistiest one in the bunch, went right at the heart of the Chimacum defense and slew the beast.

Littlejohn, who pumped in five of her season-best nine in the fourth, took the ball straight at Chimacum’s biggest, baddest interior defender and brought her crashing down.

“Kalia attacked hard, all 5-foot-3, and went right at Alice Yaley, who is 6-foot,” King said. “Kalia made the lay up and was fouled. She completed the play by making her free throw.”

Coupeville was dead-on at the charity stripe down the stretch, swishing six free throws to stymie any Cowboy come-back hopes.

Nisbet was on fire in the first quarter, staking the Cowboys to a 13-10 lead at the first break, but the Wolves controlled the game’s final three quarters.

A big factor was Coupeville’s team effort on the very psychical Yaley, who the Wolves held scoreless.

“Our post players, Lindsey (Roberts), Tiffany (Briscoe), Mikayla (Elfrank) and Sarah (Wright) did a great job defending her and limiting her opportunities,” King said. “Our wings helped out with doubling down at times.”

Different players stepped up at different times, as Coupeville continues to excel in the post-Makana Stone era.

Elfrank “came in and really lit a fire on the defensive end,” while Wright “probably played her best quarter on the season (in the third) as a varsity player.”

Senior co-captain Lauren Grove was another who stepped up and grabbed the spotlight, putting together a complete game on both ends of the floor.

“We have been talking all season about going for rebounds and not being a spectator,” King said. “Lauren over her high school career has mastered the art of diving in from the wing on a shot and corralling rebounds.

“Tonight she was at her best.”

Mia Littlejohn sparked the offensive attack, draining a team-high 13 points to go with four rebounds, two steals and three assists, while lil’ sis Kalia backed her with nine points.

Grove (7), Kellner (7), Elfrank (5) and Roberts (1) also scored, with Elfrank (10) and Kellner (9) hauling in 19 of their team’s 34 rebounds.

Coupeville, which has played 9 of 11 games on the road this season, jumped up a slot in the state’s RPI rankings with the win, sliding in at #14 among the 65 girls teams to play 1A ball.

The Wolves will have three straight non-conference games — home Tuesday vs. Sequim, then back on the road to face Mount Vernon Christian and North Mason — before they close the regular season with five league games in their final six contests.

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