Call it the school of hard knocks.

Two non-league games against 3A South Whidbey, a contest against 1A state competitor Seattle Christian and a match-up against 2A Blaine, which finished fifth at the state tournament last year.

It certainly appears to be a tough non-league schedule for the 1A Coupeville girls basketball team, but it’s not by mistake.

“We tried to schedule a tough non-league schedule to help us in league,” CHS head coach Greg Oldham said.

The plan seems to be working thus far.

Coupeville dropped to 0-4 in non-league games Saturday afternoon, falling 52-35 to Blaine, but the Wolves sit atop the Northwest A/B league at 3-0.

“We’re in a good spot in league right now,” Oldham said.

Although they lost by a large margin on Saturday, the Wolves had their opportunities to improve on their non-league woes against a Blaine team that finished 28-1 last year.

Down 26-16 at half time, CHS rallied in the third quarter, pulling within two, 31-29, on a layup from senior Heather Davis with 1:58 to go.

The Wolves stopped the Borderites on their next offensive possession and had a chance to take their first lead of the game on a three-point attempt from senior Taniel Lamb. Lamb’s shot, however, took a long bounce off the iron into the hands of Blaine’s Alyssa Hendrickson, who went the distance of the court for a layup.

From that moment on, the Borderites went on an 18-6 run to close out the contest.

“When you dig yourself such a big hole, you expend so much energy just to get back to surface level,” Oldham said.

Coupeville got itself in trouble early committing 19 first-half turnovers, 11 of which came in the second quarter. Over half of those turnovers resulted in easy transition baskets for Blaine.

“There are times I think we’re color blind,” Oldham said.”If you travel, if you throw the ball out of bounds, you at least get to set up your defense. If you throw the ball to somebody wearing the other color they often get an easy opportunity out of it.”

Coupeville was led in scoring by Davis, who put in an inspired second-half performance, scoring nine of her 11 points.

“She’s so athletic,” Oldham said. “When she gets half a step on somebody she’s going to score.”

Lexie Black added nine points, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots for the Wolves.

Jen Kramer led Blaine with a game-high 20 points.

Blaine 14 12 9 17 — 52

Coupeville 5 11 13 6 — 35

Scoring — Coupeville: Davis 11, L. Black 9, Lamb 8, B. Black 3, Mouw 2, Clark 2. Blaine: Kramer 20, Henderickson 14, Nix 10, Harmining 4, Robertson 2, Stull 2.

Boys go cold

Offense was hard to come by for the Coupeville boys basketball team Saturday afternoon.

The Wolves struggled from the field the entire game, hitting just 14-of-50 field goals, en route to a 63-45 non-league home loss to Blaine.

“Part of that, not that our shooting has been that great, was their defense,” CHS head coach Randy King said.

The Borderites used a box zone defense, focusing on primarily keeping the ball out of the hands of the Wolves’ leading scorer Mike Bagby.

Their plan worked to perfection.

Bagby, who has averaged nearly 21 points a game, mustered just three points in the first half, while scoring six of his 11 total points from the free throw line.

“We tried a couple of different things to get him the ball,” King said. “We had him moving offensively to get him open — they just did a good job.”

Blaine maintained a 32-17 advantage at halftime and never let up. The closest Coupeville got was to within 13 points, 34-21 with 4:30 left in the third period. The Borderites then went on a 13-5 run to close the quarter.

“They pretty much beat us in every way you can think of,” King said.

Senior guard Blake Day, who got in early foul trouble, led the Wolves in scoring with 14. Junior J.J. Marti added 11 along with Bagby.

At 1-2 in league and 3-5 overall, the Wolves prepare to take on league opponent Orcas Island at 3 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 28 at Key Arena. The girls play at 1:30 p.m. Both games proceed the Seattle Sonics versus the Philadelphia 76ers contest at 7 p.m.

Blaine 14 18 15 16 — 63

Coupeville 5 12 9 19 — 45

Scoring — Coupeville: Day 14, Marti 11, Bagby 11, Tucker 6, Mouw 3. Blaine: Paciorek 20, Rothwell 13, Goodwin 10, Goldspy 10, Christian 2, Pianki 2, Timm 2, Sylvester 2, Hurta 1, Paez 1.