CHS coach David King and his six-pack of talented seniors. Back (l to r) Madeline Strasburg, Wynter Thorne. Front: Hailey Hammer, Julia Myers, Kacie Kiel, Monica Vidoni. (John Fisken photos)
Kiel gets her game face on.
It wasn’t perfect, maybe, but it was sweet.
Bounced across the hall and forced to play in the much-smaller middle school gym due to an equipment malfunction, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad rolled to its fifth straight win Tuesday night.
While a slow start was troublesome (perhaps a bit of a letdown after clinching a league title in their last game), the red-hot Wolves eventually strung together enough high-wattage plays to stroll past visiting Port Townsend 53-35.
Even better, the key plays came from multiple girls, as one Wolf after another stepped up to help their squad improve to 13-5 overall, 7-0 in Olympic League play.
Julia Myers, she of the famous defensive-minded elbows, stepped up to drop three consecutive baskets at a key moment in the third, each shot more impressive than the one before.
Not to be outdone, freshman phenom Mia Littlejohn blunted another Port Townsend run with a softly arcing three-point bomb from the left side that barely rippled the net as it dropped from high above in the skies.
Then there was the deadly twin terrors, Makana Stone and Madeline Strasburg, both too fleet of feet for any Port Townsend girl to catch.
Stone was a beast (as usual) on the boards, hauling down 12 (seven on the offensive end) to go with her game-high 20 points, while Strasburg stung the Redhawks in an unexpected manner.
Normally a high-powered scorer herself, Maddie Big Time morphed into Steve Nash (in his prime) on this night, dishing out nine assists and setting her teammates up with a variety of dazzling passes.
“Maddi, with her assists, really was outstanding,” said CHS coach David King.
Their ability to pull out big plays, to clamp down on defense when required, to kick it into a new gear when the moment called for it, made up for stretches of so-so play from the Wolves.
They snatched the lead right out of the gate, with Myers banging home a quick jumper after the graceful Stone won yet another game-opening tip, and never relinquished the lead.
But they did allow Port Townsend to stay around a big longer than expected.
The Redhawks, a young, two-win team that has improved greatly as the season has worn on, stayed within 14-11 after one and were still hanging around, down by five, with a minute to go in the half.
It was then that the most unsung, and perhaps most valuable player of the night, pulled off the best play, hands down, of the entire evening.
Senior Wynter Thorne, the ultimate hard-working role player, twisted herself around two Redhawks, snatching a rebound off of a missed Wolf free throw.
Snagging it with one hand, she immediately went back up, banging it home for what would be a game-busting bucket.
“Wynter came in off the bench and provided us with a huge spark,” King said. “I’ve challenged the reserves that when they come into a game they need to pick up their play and play as hard as the one they are replacing. Or better yet, outplay them.
“She really brought it tonight with her all around hustle and play.”
Scoring the final six points in the half, with Myers and Stone adding back-to-back jumpers, Coupeville finally pushed its lead into double digits at 30-19.
From there they stretched it out to 20 in the second half, and, while they didn’t completely crush their foes, the Wolves did keep alive their streak of winning every league game this season by 15+ points.
Coupeville got strong stats across the board, with Stone adding five steals and a block to her double-double.
Myers dropped in 14 and snagged six boards, Thorne banked home eight and grabbed three caroms and Hailey Hammer had four points and three rebounds.
Littlejohn (three points, three steals, two blocks), Monica Vidoni (two points, three boards) and Kacie Kiel (two points, three assists) rounded out the stat sheet.
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