If teams got bonus points for artistic merit in basketball, the Coupeville High School girls squad would have come up empty in that column at Vashon Island Tuesday, Dec. 22. No problem. The Wolves played ugly and still came home with a 36-29 non-conference win.

The contest was Coupeville’s first in 11 days, and the rust was evident, according to coach David King.

“We played like we haven’t had a game in a week in a half,” he said. “I’ve never heard of a coach or team turning down an ugly win, and we won’t turn down our win tonight, but is was not a pretty game for us.”

Vashon Island used several unusual defenses to slow down the Wolves and high-scoring Makana Stone.

Vashon started the game in a triangle and two, employing a man-to-man on Makana Stone and Mia Littlejohn and a three-man zone with its other players. The Pirates later switched to a box-and-one, manning up on Stone.

The defenses didn’t trouble Coupeville, poor shooting did.

The Wolves were aggressive and worked for good shots but couldn’t get many to drop.

Coupeville was rushing its shots and it was “like shooting a beach ball into a cup,” King said. “Nothing was falling and many shots were way off. By my estimation without looking at our shot chart, we probably missed 15 to 20 point-blanks shots.”

When the game started, Coupeville’s aggression caused the Pirates to get into foul trouble, but the Wolves were unable to take advantage. The cold shooting carried over to the foul line where the Wolves hit only three of 17 in the first half.

Coupeville led 6-4 after one quarter.

Vashon started to heat up in the second quarter, but a few big buckets by Littlejohn and Stone helped the Wolves keep pace as the teams went into the break knotted at 15.

A three-point shot by Kailey Kellner helped the Wolves take a five-point lead into the final period.

Late in the game Kellner nailed another three and the Wolves, finally, connected at the foul line to hold off the Pirates for the win.

A good defensive effort in the second half also helped.

“Mia and others did a great job of anticipating passes and got some timely steals for us,” King said.

Stone, who had “two or three players draped all over her when she was in the post,” King said, led Coupeville with 14 points, five below her season average.

Fellow post player Tiffany Briscoe helped pick up the slack, King said, knocking “down some big shots for us.” Briscoe finished with six points.

Littlejohn ended with eight points, Kellner seven and Lauren Grove one.

Coupeville (5-2) hosts La Conner (5-2) at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 30. The varsity boys game follows at 7 p.m.