Coupeville Sports

Mattea Miller, seen in an earlier game, was everywhere Friday, banging for boards, fighting for loose balls and hitting a couple of key buckets. (John Fisken photo).

It started as a rout and ended up becoming a thriller.

From holding visiting Lakewood scoreless for the first 14 minutes of the game, to narrowly clinging to a one-point lead late in the third, the Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball team made life interesting for coach Amy King Friday night.

But in the end, no matter how they got there, the Wolves, repping the smallest 1A school in the state, did finish the job, knocking off the 2A Cougars, second-biggest school in the Cascade Conference, 25-19.

Coupeville did it behind a stifling defense, key buckets at the right moment from McKayla Bailey and Emily Coulter, and a monster performance in limited time from Wynter Thorne.

A swing player who also saw time in the night’s varsity contest, Thorne only stepped on the floor in the second and fourth quarters. When she was on the hardwood, however, she was large and in charge.

The second quarter was a one-woman show, as she rained down seven of her nine points.

The first bucket came off a nifty steal, when she let a Lakewood player start to slide past her, then nimbly picked her pocket.

The closing basket came on a breakaway after Thorne blocked back-to-back Cougar shots on the same play, blasting the second rejection off of the top of a Lakewood player’s head to the high-decibel screams of her many fans.

The Wolves, who led 9-0, held their visitors scoreless until almost the two-minute mark in the second quarter.

Then Coupeville got a bit lax on the boards and let Lakewood creep back into the game, with the Cougars pulling within 15-14 with under a minute to play in the third.

Instead of panicking, the Wolves slammed the door. Hard.

Carlie Rosenkrance hit a buzzer-beating jumper from the left side to cap the third, then Bailey and Thorne hit back-to-back buckets to open the fourth.

The final dagger came from Coulter, who circled out to the top of three-point land, faked a pass, and drained a wild one-handed trey with under two minutes to play.

As she ran back up the court, giddy smile beaming from one end of the gym to the other, the final resistance died deep inside the Cougar players.

Thorne paced Coupeville with nine, while Rosenkrance and the Queen of Hustle, Mattea Miller, both banked home four.

Bailey and Coulter each dropped in three and Lauren Grove rounded out the scoring with a pair of free-throws.