Give an opponent second chances to score and it’s never a good thing.

Give them three, sometimes four opportunities to put the ball in the basket and you’re bound to get burned.

The Coupeville girls basketball team ran into that problem in the first half Wednesday night as they surrendered nearly 20 offensive rebounds to 2A Foster in a 53-39 home loss.

The Wolves allowed eight of those boards to go for 16 Bulldog points. Fourteen second-chance points came in the first half, leaving Coupeville with a 37-19 half time deficit.

“I just finished telling them…’you guys are going to box out so much in practice, you’re going to dream about boxing out,’” CHS head coach Geoff Kappes said after the non-league loss.

Despite their first half troubles and an 18-point deficit, Coupeville came out of the locker room a much different team in the second half.

The Wolves went on an 13-2 run to start the third quarter, pulling within seven points, 39-32, with 1:55 left in the third.

“Once we started working our offense and once we started doing what we wanted to do on the basketball court, things started to work well for us,” Kappes said.

A major factor in the run was the hot shooting of guard Brittany Black. The 6-foot senior connected on two three point shots within the first two minutes, forcing Foster into a quick timeout.

The Wolves also limited their turnovers in the opening part of the third. They didn’t commit one through the first 6:30 of the quarter after turning it over 14 times in the first half.

“Once we controlled those turnovers in the second half we saw what we were capable of,” Kappes said.

The turnovers that hurt them early, however, were quick to return, halting comeback hopes. The Wolves turned the ball over four times within the final minute-and-a-half of the third and seven more times in the fourth, allowing easy buckets for the Bulldogs.

CHS ended the game with 25 turnovers, to the 19 of Foster.

Although disappointed with the loss, Kappes remained optimistic.

“We’re still a step away from a lot of the things we’re looking for, but that will come,” he said. “These preseason battles are tough, but they’re tough on purpose.

We want to get ready for league.”

CHS sophomore Shawna West led the team with 12 points, tying Foster’s Lanaya Daniels with a game-high. Coupeville senior Jennifer Bailey added eight points, as did Black.

The Wolves (0-2) travel to a tournament in Port Townsend this weekend, facing the likes of Seaside, Ore., and other large schools.

They open league play at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 13 at home against Mount Vernon Christian.

“That’s what our eyes are on,” Kappes said. “If we can play the way we are capable of playing we’re going to do really well in league.”

Foster 19 18 6 10 — 53

Coupeville 10 9 13 7 — 39

Scoring: Coupeville-West 12, Bailey 8, Black 8, Burgoyne 4, Mouw 3, Ebersole 2, Rosenkrance 2. Foster-Daniels 12, Popanjak 11, Doty 8, Horton 7, Camp 4, Charmichael 4, Mendoza 4, Castro 3.