Sarah Wright, here freaking out a rival in an earlier game, had eight points and four rebounds Friday against Orcas. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
You buy the ticket for the roller coaster, you get to experience both the highs and the lows.
Back on the court for the first time in nine days, the Coupeville High School girls basketball squad enjoyed some dizzying moments of elation, and some gut-wrenching moments of despair Friday night.
By the time things were done, the Wolves had lost both their leading scorer (for how long is unknown) and a game that was waiting to be won, falling 47-44 in overtime to visiting Orcas Island.
The non-conference loss drops CHS to 2-8, and now the Wolves will sit for another week, not returning to action until Jan. 5.
That gap might actually be a blessing in disguise, as it will give senior Mikayla Elfrank time to hopefully heal.
She had poured in nine points Friday, helping Coupeville surge to a seven-point lead early in the third quarter, when she came down awkwardly, hurting her ankle and crippling her team’s offensive output in one unlucky move.
With Elfrank on the bench, foot up and ice applied, CHS went into a tailspin for a bit.
Missing their most explosive offensive ace — she’s tossed in 32 more points than Coupeville’s #2 scorer this season — the Wolves went stagnant from the field.
Not making things any better, Orcas, whose philosophy on three-point bombs was “fire wildly and pray,” suddenly couldn’t miss, hitting treys from impossible angles.
Mixing long shots with steady work in the paint from their main post player, the Vikings used a 16-2 surge that covered a 10-minute span to blow the game up.
Jumping from a 28-21 deficit when Elfrank’s foot betrayed her, to a 37-30 lead, Orcas looked unbeatable.
But then the roller coaster took another dizzying dive, and this time it was Coupeville’s fans screaming in glee.
Playing their best team ball of the night, the Wolves closed regulation on a 14-7 run, with six different players scoring, to force a late tie and even have a chance to win right at the buzzer.
The reversal of fortune was kicked off by a play, which, in the moment, was a small thing of beauty. In the bigger picture, it was the fuse being lit.
Under pressure, Lindsey Roberts drove the lane, sucked the defense to her, then dropped off a note-perfect bounce pass onto teammate Allison Wenzel’s finger tips at the very last second.
Wenzel, a scrappy defensive demon who specializes in doing down-and-dirty work which often gets overlooked in the box score, knocked down the bucket over the outstretched arms of three Orcas players, and the game changed in a snap.
Big three-balls from Kyla Briscoe and Roberts helped, before Ema Smith stuck a dagger in the side of Orcas, calling for the ball, then coldly drilling it through the bottom of the net.
A put-back by Sarah Wright, coming off of an offensive rebound, knotted things at 42-42, before Coupeville recaptured the lead with 1:05 to play.
Briscoe stepped in front of an Orcas pass, picked the ball clean, then led a charge down the floor.
At the end of her run, she flipped the ball to Scout Smith, who slapped it home for the biggest bucket of her sophomore campaign.
The final minute of regulation was a wild mix of inspired defense, a couple badly-botched calls by a less-than-stellar reffing crew and a speck or two of what could have been.
Orcas tied the game off of an offensive rebound with 37 ticks on the clock, but missed on a free throw which could have given them the lead.
Coupeville responded by almost, but not quite, putting a stamp on the game and sprinting away with a win.
Ema Smith got herself in position to draw a charge with just 10 seconds left, but a ref on the wrong side of the play refused to give her the call.
The fact he blushed in shame after making the call seemed to point towards a sudden realization he had chosen the wrong job. One can hope…
Having fouled out, Ema Smith, being the ever-feisty spark-plug she is, led the screaming from the bench, after piling her hair high in a “rally cap,” but the refs stiffed the Wolves again.
Wright launched an airmail pass to a sprinting Roberts, who pulled the ball down from the heavens and was promptly hammered into the parking lot by an Orcas defender … for the 44th time in the game.
To the surprise of no one who had seen the ref’s seeing-eye dog leave the gym two minutes before (perhaps seeking a late special on hot dogs at the concession stand?), no foul was called.
Instead of shooting free throws with a chance to take the lead, the Wolves got the ball on the end line. While they got a last-second shot partially off, the ball was lost in a sea of hands and never came close to the rim as time expired.
After playing so valiantly in the game’s final minutes, evoking memories of previous come-from behind wins led by former CHS greats like Breeanna Messner and Makana Stone, both home for the holidays, the Wolves couldn’t get the miracle they deserved in overtime.
Briscoe had a sensational block on a girl a good six inches taller than her, but nothing, and I mean nothing, would drop on the offensive end for Coupeville in the extra four minutes.
Orcas couldn’t get much more going, but a put-back off a rebound and a paltry free throw were enough to seal the victory for the Vikings.
The game opened as a tightly-played battle, ending in an 8-8 tie after the first quarter.
Then that darn roller coaster effect set in, as Coupeville opened the second with a run, Orcas responded with its own run, then the Wolves closed the half on a 9-2 tear.
Elfrank was a woman on fire, tossing in seven points and threading the ball to Wright for three buckets in the paint, each set-up pass prettier than the one before it.
Coupeville capped the half with Ema Smith knocking down a gorgeous three-ball from the top.
Perfectly rotating through the air, then softly splashing down as she backpedaled, it was the kind of thing they replay on the scoreboard 23 times … if CHS had a video scoreboard.
While the Wolves record isn’t what it has been in the past, the majority of the losses have been by a handful of points. A team in transition is learning under fire.
CHS coach David King preached cutting down turnovers during his halftime talk, and it paid off, with the Wolves slicing their miscues in half after the break.
Also, for a squad which has struggled at times to find adequate scoring, Friday’s 44 points were the second-most Coupeville has tallied this season.
The Wolves spread those points out, with Roberts and Elfrank each tossing in nine.
Wright knocked down eight, Ema Smith singed the nets for seven and Scout Smith tickled the twines for six.
Briscoe (3) and Wenzel (2) rounded out the scoring, while young guns Chelsea Prescott and Avalon Renninger saw key floor time.
Roberts paced the Wolves on the boards, snaring 15 caroms, while Briscoe added five rebounds and six assists.
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