Playing possibly its best game of the season, the Coupeville High School girls basketball team simply ran out of steam in a 51-29 loss to visiting Bellevue Christian Saturday, Dec. 16.

“Focused play and effort, that’s what the team brought for the whole game,” Coupeville coach David King said. “Our first half was one of our best of the season. Nice to see and a good continuation from the effort we had in the fourth quarter from our previous game.

“The second half the effort was there. Mentally we were still sharp; physically we ran out of gas. We had a short bench once again with one full-time sub and two swing players that had two and three quarters available.”

BC, which raised its record to 7-0, led 11-8 after the first quarter; Ema Smith helped keep Coupeville close with 4 points.

The Vikings added a bit more to the lead in the second period, taking a 24-18 advantage into the locker room. Mikayla Elfrank scored 4 points and Lindsey Roberts hit a three-ball to pace the Wolves in the quarter.

Bellevue Christian (5-2) began to pull away in the second half, going up 35-24 after three periods, then outscoring Coupeville 16-5 in the fourth.

Elfrank led the Wolves with 9 points and eight rebounds. Roberts had 5 points and 8 rebounds, and Chelsea Prescott added 5 points and four rebounds.

Smith finished with 4 points, four rebounds and three steals.

Sarah Wright had 4 points, and Kyla Briscoe and Scout Smith had 1 each.

Molly Vanderbrink scored 15 and Catherine Dugan 10 for the Vikings.

King liked how his undersized team held its own against the Vikings’ big posts.

“They were able to get points,” King said, “but they had to earn them.”

King saw a lot of positives from his team.

“Players are starting to step up, accept some different roles and play in the moment. If we continue to do these things, good things will continue to happen.

“In previous games we would try to beat a press or fast break by dribbling up the court. Tonight we looked to pass ahead. We had at least one sequence that the ball didn’t hit the floor and it ended with a Chelsea Prescott lay up.

“It was good to see our offense moving the ball and having 7 of 8 players score. We need more of that.”

Coupeville, still winless after seven games, will look to break into the win column when it hosts Concrete (1-4) at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20.