They picked a bad time to play badly.
The Coupeville High School girls basketball team put in a ragged performance in a 45-32 loss to Seattle Christian in the District 3 1A Tournament at Tacoma’s Bellarmine Prep Tuesday, Feb. 14.
“It was not pretty on all fronts,” Coupeville coach David King said. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance to win. We came out timid and let the playoff atmosphere get the best of us.”
Now, the Wolves need to win two in a row to nab second place and the final berth into the regional tournament.
Coupeville (15-5) takes on Cascade Christian (9-12) in a loser-out game at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, at Bellarmine.
Bellevue Christian defeated Cascade Christian 41-25 Tuesday and will play Seattle Christian in the district title game at 7:45 p.m. Thursday.
The loser of the championship game and the winner between Coupeville and Cascade Christian meet at noon Saturday to decide second place.
One constant for Coupeville this season on its way to winning its third straight Olympic League crown was its stingy defense.
“All season long our strongest attribute was our defensive presence, and (it) was something we could count on no matter how or offense was playing,” King said. “Tonight, we just didn’t bring it defensively.”
The defensive plan, King said, was to minimize the damage of the Warriors’ big three: Serianna Anderson, Alexandria Ellis and Olivia Clark. That didn’t happen as the trio combined to score 41 of Seattle Christian’s 46 points.
The Wolves, according to King, didn’t defend the three-point line, didn’t defend the pick and roll, didn’t defend drives to the hoop, didn’t….Well, you get the picture.
Coupeville also struggled on offense. The Wolves had 16 turnovers in the first half and 27 for the game.
“We can’t have that many turnovers and expect to win a game,” King said.
Kailey Kellner hit two three-balls and scored all eight of Coupeville’s first-quarter points, but the Warriors led 13-8 after one period.
Mikayla Elfrank tallied six for Coupeville in the second quarter, but Seattle Christian upped is lead to 25-17 at halftime.
The Warriors took a 36-25 lead into the fourth period.
King did see some positives.
“Tiffany (Briscoe) played well,” he said. “Kalia (Littlejohn), Mikayla and our bench brought good energy.
“I want to praise the effort of Lauren Rose, Allison Wenzel, Sarah Wright and Ema Smith. Lauren came in and played with confidence, and the other three, when called on, brought a similar effort and spark that Kalia and Mikayla played with.”
Kellner finished with 10 points, Elfrank 8, Briscoe 8, Kalia Littlejohn 5 and Mia Littlejohn 1.
Briscoe added eight rebounds, Elfrank six, Mia Littlejohn six and Lindsey Roberts six.
Elfrank also had three blocks; Kalia Littlejohn recorded five steals.
“For us to be successful, we need to realize and know we can compete with the teams in the Nisqually League,” King said.
“(We need to) know that it’s not one player that has to do everything, but as Wolves do in the wild, be a pack – we are all in this thing together.”
