South Whidbey jumped on the host Coupeville High School girls basketball team early, outscoring the Wolves by 14 points in the first half, for a 43-29 non-league win Saturday, Dec. 10.

Coupeville’s conference game with Klahowya Friday, Dec. 9, was postponed because of weather.

South Whidbey hit three three-balls in the first quarter to go up 14-6, then outscored the Wolves 11-5 in the second period to lead 25-11 at halftime.

The Falcons closed out each quarter with a run, including scoring the final 7 points of the half.

“South Whidbey is a veteran team,” coach David King said. “They have been playing a long time together and came prepared and outplayed us. They used their height on defense along with getting good post position all game long on the offensive end. They also hurt us from the outside by knocking down open threes in the game.”

Both teams scored 7 points in the third quarter and 11 in the fourth.

“Coming out for the second half we weren’t happy with our play and made a better showing,” coach David King said. “We knew we couldn’t close the 14 point gap in one play, so we tried chipping away one possession at a time. We played better and played them even.”

King wasn’t happy with his team’s offensive execution: “All game long we were battling an aggressive defense and the shot clock. Too many times we had to rush a shot with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock.

“Offensively, we have had one complete game. Against South Whidbey, like some of the earlier games, we struggled to move the ball with a purpose and efficiently. We either turned the ball over or rushed and put up some bad shots.”

On defense, Coupeville displayed “flashes” of good play, according to King.

Mia Littlejohn led the Wolves with 10 points. Mikayla Elfrank and Lindsey Roberts had 4 each, Kalia Littlejohn and Lauren Rose 3 apiece, Kailey Kellner and Lauren Grove 2 and Sarah Wright 1.

Roberts and Kellner each grabbed 5 rebounds.

In the junior varsity game, Coupeville came from 10 down to win 24-20. The Wolves gave up only 8 points over the final three quarters.

Wright scored 11 points, Ema Smith 5, Nicole Laxton 4, Scout Smith 2 and Ashlie Shank 2.

Coupeville (1-0, 3-2) travels to Silverdale to face Klahowya (0-1, 2-1) at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 13.