David King gives his Wolves last minute instructions. Among those listening, at top, is Katie Kiel (33). (Robert Bishop photos)
Wolf fans celebrate their classmates.
For 19 games Katie Kiel has done the dirty work.
The Coupeville High School senior is a scrapper, a hustler, a rebounder, a tenacious defender, a cheerleader on the bench — one of those indispensable pieces every coach needs, but the kind of player who often doesn’t get the headlines or appear in the highlight reels.
Until Tuesday night.
Playing in front of a packed house at home on Senior Night, Kiel and her teammates blew Granite Falls off the floor to a 48-21 tune.
But while the noise from parents, students and townsfolk rocked the joint, the loudest scream was reserved for that shining moment early in the fourth quarter when Kiel out-jumped a defender, snagged a rebound and immediately went back up and swished a shot.
The first points of the season for the hard-working senior, they elicited a thunderous ovation from the crowd, but no voice soared higher than that of her dad, Steve Kiel, who happily punctured all eardrums in a three-county vicinity screaming “That’s my girl!!!”
It was a sight, and sound, to behold, and the perfect capper to a night that went Coupeville’s way from before the opening tip, when teammates sent off Coupeville’s six seniors with hand-written notes, flowers, balloons and (in the case of Rhiannon Ellsworth) a blanket from some of her closest basketball-playing buddies.
Once the game actually got under way, the Wolves raced out to a 6-0 lead on back-to-back buckets from freshman Makana Stone and senior Haley Marx, and then two Stone free throws that barely rippled the net as they slid through.
A three-point bomb from Granite Falls cut the lead in half, but also signaled the last time the visitors would score in the first half. Forcing several shot-clock violations and relentlessly pursuing the ball, Coupeville went on an 18-0 run before the half to effectively seal the deal.
Hailey Hammer hit a turn-around jumper and the ensuing free throw to close the first, then the Wolves went wild in the second. With ace gunner Amanda Fabrizi raining down six points in the quarter, five Coupeville players put points on the board in a 15-0 whitewash during the second eight-minute period.
The closest anyone got to beating the Wolves to the bucket in the second quarter came when former CHS hoops star Scott Stuurmans suddenly had to unfold himself and fly down the bleachers to snag his little daughter, who went from her seat to the sideline in 0.1 second.
Things were a little closer in the second half, but Coupeville kept its foot on the gas and never let the lead get below 21.
Bessie Walstad had the play of the half — other than Kiel’s crowd-pleaser — when she snagged a rebound with one hand and put it back up and in, all without ever bothering to bring the second hand up, which was resting by her side.
Having given each of his six seniors (Kiel, Walstad, Ellsworth, Marx, Lauren Escalle and Jai’Lysa Hoskins) a fourth-quarter curtain call, Wolf coach David King ended the game with next year’s likely starting five (Stone, sophomores Hammer and Madeline Strasburg and juniors Fabrizi and Breeanna Messner) on the court together.
A true team performance, Coupeville got points from 10 of its 11 players, with Stone hitting for nine and Walstad pumping in eight. Hammer popped for seven, Fabrizi singed the nets for six, Escalle gunned for five, Ellsworth torched the joint for four, Messner dropped in three and Marx, Hoskins and Kiel each added a bucket.
The win lifted Coupeville to 6-13 overall, 4-9 in Cascade Conference play. With South Whidbey being blown out 56-19 against Archbishop Thomas Murphy, the Wolves pulled to within a game of the Falcons (5-8) in the race for the #2 playoff seed among the three 1A schools in the eight-team 1A/2A league.
Coupeville closes its regular season Friday, Feb. 1 at King’s, while South Whidbey meets Granite Falls.
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