The Coupeville High School girls basketball team zipped to an early lead and then held off pesky Vashon Island for a 44-37 win in Coupeville Monday, Dec. 29.

The Wolves scored the game’s first eight points and never trailed, but the Pirates (2-5) cut the lead to one at one point and trailed by only three midway through the final period.

Each time Coupeville threatened to pull away, Sienna Jannetty would pull the Pirates back into the game.

Jannetty finished with 19 points, 15 coming from three-pointers.

Coupeville led 14-8 after one quarter behind six points from Kacie Kiel and three assists from Makana Stone.

Four different players scored in the second quarter for the Wolves, who led 24-17 at the break.

Jannetty had 11 of the Pirates’ first-half points.

Vashon Island trimmed the lead to one in the third quarter, then the Wolves surged.

Maddi Strasburg, back after missing several weeks with an injury, grabbed an offensive rebound and hit Mia Littlejohn, who made a nice move to free herself for a three-pointer.

Stone followed with an offensive rebound and putback to give the Wolves a 32-26 advantage heading into the final period.

Jannetty nailed two from beyond the arc to cut Coupeville’s lead to 40-37 with four minutes left.

From there, the Wolves’ defense stiffened and blanked the Pirates the rest of the way.

A key 12-footer by Wynter Thorne and another Stone putback sealed the game.

Coupeville coach David King said his team ran its offense well throughout the game but had trouble knocking down shots.

“An adjustment we made at halftime was to crash and look for opportunities to get offensive rebounds,” King said. “We were able to keep possessions alive.”

“Defensively we played well at times,” he said. “We got some steals, and, especially in the second half, we got layups off of the steals. Then at times we didn’t play good team defense on Sienna and she was able to get open shots.”

Coupeville outrebounded Vashon Island 33-23 but committed more turnovers, 16-9.

King said it was nice to have Strasburg back, noting she “brought our team energy up” and “gave our team some toughness.” She finished with eight points and four rebounds.

“Wynter had four big defensive rebounds,” he added. “Hailey (Hammer) played strong all game long.”

Stone recorded another double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds; she also had five assists and three blocks.

Kiel finished with eight points, Littlejohn five, Thorne four, Julia Myers two and Monica Vidoni two.

Coupeville (6-3) heads to La Conner (8-0) at 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 2, to face the unbeaten and eighth-ranked 2B Braves.

“They are always a tough matchup,” King said. “If we clean some things up, continue to work the ball on offense and improve our defense, it should be a great game.”