An outstanding second quarter performance by the Coupeville girls basketball team helped them get past the Overlake Owls for a 52-49 non-conference victory Friday night.

The Wolves trailed 13-8 after the opening period, but outscored Overlake by 10 in the second quarter on 6-of-9 shooting, turning a five point deficit into a five-point halftime lead.

“The second quarter has been good to us so far this year,” said Wolves’ head coach Greg Oldham. “It was closer than I would have liked it to be, but they are a better team than they were last year.”

In the Wolves’ first game of the year they outscored Granite Falls 22-7 in the second quarter on their way to a 70-44 victory. On Friday against Overlake things were much closer. The Owls actually outscored Coupeville by two (25-23) in the second half.

The Wolves opened the game sluggish, but were able to wear out Overlake in the pivotal second frame.

“They jumped out on us early, we weren’t very aggressive in our press,” Oldham said. “In the second quarter we kept running and we got their post player in foul trouble. We could see that we were tiring them out.”

With the Owls’ top low-post player out of the game, Coupeville went down low to Sarah Mouw, who converted three straight scoring opportunities. Mouw finished the game with 14 points and eight rebounds.

The Wolves took a five-point lead into halftime and were able to hold on from there. The team hit some key free throws near the end that preserved the win.

“We had the lead most of the way and hit our free throws down the stretch,” said Oldham. “Ashley (Ellsworth-Bagby) and Brianne King hit some key free throws in the last minute.

“The second half was really tight and we didn’t play particularly well but we came away with a quality victory.”

Besides Sarah Mouw’s 14 points, the Wolves got double-figure scoring from Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby (17) and Amy Mouw (10). Oldham was happy with Bagby’s performance.

“Ashley had a really great game,” he said. “Everytime we needed a key basket she hit it. She had balanced scoring every quarter and whenever Overlake was making a run she would be the one to stop it.”

Brianne King, the Wolves’ leading scorer entering the game, struggled with her shot as se went just 1-of-10 from the floor totalling six points. Despite having a cold shooting hand, King contributed in other areas, leading the team with nine rebounds and five steals.

“Brianne’s going to have nights when she’s not shooting the ball all that well, but I’m not worried about it because she does so many other good things for this team,” Oldham said.

“Teams are keying on (Brianne) and its opening things up for other players like Ashley and Amy Mouw.

The addition of the Mouw sisters this season is giving the Wolves more weapons and they do not need to depend on King’s scoring as much as they did last year.

Coupeville faces two more non-conference opponents this week as the Christmas break approaches. The squad met Mount Vernon Christian last night (results will be published in the Saturday News-Times) and hosts Sequim on Friday.

“I told the girls that our games were going to get progressively tougher,” said the coach. “Mount Vernon Christian might be our toughest non-league opponent – they’re one of the best B schools in the state. We played Sequim really tough last year, it would be nice to get them at home this year.”

Oldham still believes that his team hasn’t put a complete game together, but with league play approaching, Northwest A opponents had better watch out because the Wolves are gelling into a pretty good team that can hurt their opponents in a variety of ways.

“Our timing was just a little off Friday night. When the timing is on, we’ll be a fun team to watch, it’s just going to be a matter of hard work and time playing together,” Oldham said.

Coupeville 52, Overlake 49

At Coupeville H.S.

Coupeville – 8 21 11 12 – 52

Overlake – 13 11 12 13 – 49

Coupeville: A. Mouw 10, Ellsworth-Bagby 17, Lamb 2, King 6, Davis 3, S. Mouw 14. Overlake: Weaver 10, Fisk 4, Meredith 3, Pentz 16, Barghalame 2, MacKenzie 12, Linn 2. Records: Coupeville 0-0 league, 3-0 overall, Overlake 0-0, 1-2