Seeking its second Cascade League victory of the season, the Coupeville girls basketball team appeared to be headed in the right direction in Friday’s game against Sultan.
The Wolves fell behind 15-9 after the first quarter of play, but put together a balanced scoring attack in the second period. Coupeville went on a 6-0 run to open the quarter and put up a total of 16 points to hold a 25-21 halftime lead.
Shawna West, Sarah Burgoyne and Ashley Manker each scored four points in the period and the team went into the locker room with a lot of hope.
However, things fell apart in the second half and Coupeville managed just 15 points the rest of the way to fall to the Turks 47-40.
The loss dropped the Wolves’ record to 1-10 in league games and 4-14 overall.
“A couple of shots at pivotal times just rimmed out on us and didn’t drop,” coach Geoff Kappes said. “In a close game like this one was, we needed those shots to fall.”
Scoring just six points in the third period, the Wolves were still in the game trailing 33-31 heading into the final eight minutes but went ice cold from the field in the fourth quarter.
Coupeville scored just one basket from the floor and sank seven free throws as Sultan put the game in the book with 14 points.
“The girls are playing good enough basketball to win games, but just a couple of shots rimmed out on us tonight. It’s frustrating to me and frustrating to the girls when this happens. They are working their tails off in practice every day and we gotta believe it’s eventually gonna pay off.”
Burgoyne and West each scored a team-high nine points for Coupeville.
Krystal Paszkeicz paced Sultan with a game-high 14 points.
“That girl is big and it was quite a trick to get around her. That’s what knocked us out of the game,” Burgoyne commented about Paskeicz’s play. “I thought we played really well against them tonight, a lot better than we did when we played over there.”
Breanna O’Hara and Stacey Jackman were the other two players in double figures for the Turks with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
