Joel Walstad, seen here in an earlier game, hit for nine on his Senior Night. (John Fisken photo)
They were waiting for a bang. They got a fizzle.
Seconds away from pulling off their second straight thriller in front of the home fans, the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad stumbled at the worst possible moment Monday.
Two questionable plays and one rebound that got away — all in the final 11.2 seconds — doomed the Wolves to a 44-43 loss to visiting Klahowya, putting a damper on Senior Night festivities.
The loss dropped Coupeville’s record to 7-12 overall, 3-6 in Olympic League play.
They finished third in the conference and will open the playoffs Saturday with a loser-out game against Cascade Christian in Puyallup.
Win and they advance to the double-elimination portion of districts and a match-up with the Olympic League’s #1 team, Chimacum.
Closing strongly behind a rampaging Wiley Hesselgrave, the Wolves looked like they would wrap the regular season with back-to-back huge wins over the teams sitting just ahead of them in the league standings.
Using a 17-4 run that carried from late in the third to late in the fourth, CHS rebounded from a 10-point deficit to reclaim the lead at 41-38.
Coupeville’s defense was on point, anchored by shot-blocking beast Ryan Griggs, and Klahowya went nearly six minutes into the fourth before scoring.
After finally breaking the drought with a pair of free throws, however, the Eagles nailed a mile-long three-point bomb from the right sideline to shoot back in front.
Showing the same composure under pressure that they had Friday, when they shocked Chimacum in overtime, the Wolves fought right back.
Playing on an injured foot, Mohawked senior Aaron Trumbull ripped down a rebound and shot right back up at the heart of the beast, getting hammered (and two free throw opportunities) for his pain.
He calmly netted both, not being even slightly fazed when Klahowya tried to ice him with a time out between charity stripe shots.
With the game cinched tight at 43 and the Eagles bringing up the ball, everything was set for a firecracker of a finale.
But, sometimes the biggest, brightest firecrackers refuse to go off and just sputter aimlessly across the driveway, and that’s what happened to the Wolves.
A Coupeville player was whistled for a foul with 11.2 ticks left on the clock, and the refs made it a technical since the Wolf had yanked (perhaps accidentally) his rival’s jersey.
Still, hope lived, as the Eagle missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Then hope took a hit.
The ball came off the rim and skittered away from two Wolves, rolling until a Klahowya player loitering in the right place grabbed it and was fouled.
Even then, hope wasn’t completely KO’d, as the Eagles only made one free throw and Coupeville got the ball up-court quickly, calling a timeout.
With a full three seconds to run a game-winning play, the Wolves went to Hesselgrave, who had a team-high 13, but it wasn’t to be as his long-range jumper over the packed-in defense skimmed across the rim but refused to drop.
The less-than-satisfying ending wrapped what had been a back-and-forth affair.
Both teams held narrow leads in the first half, swapping baskets and refusing to let the other get too far out in front. A 14-12 Wolf bulge after one became a 27-24 deficit at the break.
Things fell apart a bit to start the third, as Klahowya dropped the first seven points to build the game’s only substantial lead at 34-24.
The Wolves rallied strongly, however, closing the quarter on a 9-4 run that saw five different players score.
For the game, the scoring was effectively spread out, with seniors Joel Walstad (9), Trumbull (8), Aaron Curtin (6) and Matt Shank (4) and junior Griggs (3) backing up Hesselgrave.
It was the final home game for the four seniors and classmate Isaac Vargas, and the five-pack went out together as starters.
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