A week and a half without a game could have allowed rust to set in.

Instead, the Coupeville girls basketball team used the winter break layover to fine-tune its defensive schemes and crush league foe La Conner 58-14 in a home victory Friday night.

“We were able to change presses four times in the first four minutes,” CHS head coach Greg Oldham said.

The defensive pressure caused obvious problems for the Braves from the get go. La Conner didn’t get its first shot of the game off until Coupeville had already taken nine attempts and built a 13-0 lead, with 5:15 left in the first.

The trend continued throughout the night.

The Wolves forced the Braves into 32 turnovers, while committing a season-low 11 themselves.

“I like the fact that we held on to the ball tonight,” Oldham said. “In a game like this it’s easy to get sloppy.”

Coupeville was up 37-9 by halftime and was never in danger of losing its lead.

Six-foot-two post Lexie Black had one of her strongest performances of the season, scoring 17 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Of the 14 rebounds, 12 came on the offensive side of the floor.

“It feels good to get that many offensive rebounds,” Black said. “Sometimes it comes from missing my own shot, but… it’s just padding the stats a little bit.”

The Wolves were also helped by senior guard Whitney Clark, who shot 3-for-6 from three point range and tallied a season-high 15 points.

Oldham was happy to see his starting shooting guard catch fire.

“Whitney is a great three point shooter, who hadn’t been able to find her range until tonight,” he said. “When she is able to do that it opens up our interior game so much.”

Despite the blowout, Coupeville did struggle from the field, missing several lay ups and close range shots. The Wolves hit just 23-of-77 of their shots (29 percent).

“You’re not particularly happy when you take 77 shots and only score 58 points,” Oldham said. “You’d like to score about a point per shot.”

Fortunately for the Wolves, La Conner also struggled when they were able to get a shot off. The Braves hit just 5-of-42 attempts (11 percent).

Holding La Conner to 14 points was the second lowest point total the Coupeville girls have ever held an opponent to. In Jan. 1999, the Wolves defeated Concrete 65-10.

La Conner 4 5 2 3 — 14

Coupeville 19 18 11 10 — 58

Scoring — Coupeville: L. Black 17, Clark 15, B. Black 10, Mouw 6, Jenkins 4, West 3, Lamb 2, Skvarla 1. La Conner: Marble 8, Hagman 3, John 3.

Coupeville 50, Overlake 47

Just 18 hours after picking up a league win, the Coupeville girls continued to roll, defeating non-league Overlake 50-47 on the road.

Up one, 36-35, going into the fourth quarter, Coupeville never allowed the Owls to take a lead in the final frame.

Lexie Black again led Coupeville with 12 points. Sister Brittany Black had 11 and Clark put in seven.

The two victories move Coupeville to 5-0 in the Northwest A/B conference and 6-4 overall.

“It’s taken awhile to get started into that rhythm, but we’re starting to feel it now,” Lexie Black said.

The nearest A schools are Friday Harbor and Concrete, both 1-3 in league.

Coupeville faced Friday Harbor last night on the road and hosts Mount Vernon Christian at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 14.

Coupeville 13 12 11 14 — 50

Overlake 9 12 14 12 — 47

Scoring — Coupeville: L. Black 12, B. Black 11, Clark 7, Davis 6, Lamb 6, Williams 6, Jenkins 2. Overlake: H. Barker 16, L. Barker 12, Campbell 7, MacKenzie 5, Sam Go 4, Peters 3.