Makana Stone surveys her empire. (Sylvia Hurlburt photos)
Senior cheerleader Jovanah Foote joined Stone in being honored before the game Saturday.
Stone’s teammates start to rush her after she and her family had their photo taken.
Saturday night was special.
For one thing, the Coupeville High School girls basketball team put together its most complete game of the season while playing in front of its home fans for the final time, romping past Klahowya 56-23.
The victory, the sixth straight for the Wolves, lifts them to 15-4 overall, 9-0 in league play.
It is the second straight year CHS has swept through league play undefeated, meaning the team’s lone senior, Makana Stone, went 18-0 in the two years the league has existed.
Playing on Senior Night, the transcendent one ripped off 27 points, one shy of her season high, and hauled down 21 rebounds, giving her a double-double in every game this season.
Stone’s last basket of the evening, coming off of a rebound that she snagged, then roared back to the rim with, gave her 368 points on the season.
That’s a personal best, breaking last year’s mark of 367.
With at least two playoff games still ahead — http://www.olympicleague.com/tournament.php?tournament_id=1767&sport=12 — Stone currently has the sixth-best single-season scoring performance in Wolf girls hoops history, and is just 19 points away from hurtling all the way into third-place.
The top two single seasons (446 in 2000-2001 and 442 in 2002-2003), both of which came from school scoring leader Brianne King, came in 24 and 28 games respectively.
Given a decent playoff run, something the Wolves seem very capable of this year, Stone, who is averaging 19.4 points per games, is on target to make school history, which is now just 79 points away.
Klahowya paid tribute to her in two ways Saturday.
After the game, the Eagle coach sidled over to the score table to peek at Stone’s stats.
“How many did she get tonight? 27? Yeah, felt like a lot more. Always does with her.”
And then he smiled, shook his head and walked away.
Before the game, the Eagles players, in one of the classiest moves I have seen in two decades of covering sports on Whidbey, waited for the Wolves to honor their team leader, then, as a group, all approached and offered their own hugs and words to Stone.
Even though she was about to unleash an unholy butt-whuppin’ on them, the Klahowya girls, who reportedly bonded with Stone when both teams participated in an impromptu game of hide-and-seek before a game earlier this season in Silverdale, impressed even the most fervent of Wolf loyalists.
Once the pregame festivities were finished, Coupeville came out with the kind of team-wide commitment coach David King has been preaching.
Lauren Grove banked in a jumper, Stone ripped a steal loose and took it the length of the floor for a swooping bucket, then Kailey Kellner, flying up the right side on a break, fed Stone a pinpoint pass on the move for another bucket.
After another bang-bang play later in the first, this one ricocheting from Mia Littlejohn to Stone to Kellner, with the junior sniper slapping home a lay-in, Klahowya made its one move of the game.
A long three-ball from the right side pulled the Eagles to within 8-5, and the league’s #2 team looked like they might be up for a duel.
Nope.
From the next play through late in the second quarter, Coupeville went on a 19-1 tear that effectively ended the game and removed the skip from the Eagles step for good.
Stone, who has been setting a torrid pace down the stretch, threw down 13 during the run, while Littlejohn, Grove and Tiffany Briscoe all dropped in a bucket apiece.
The Wolves were relentless all night, also putting together a 25-6 stretch from early in the third to late in the fourth to stretch the lead out to 54-17.
Klahowya found a wee bit of dignity with a brief six-point surge at that point against the Wolf bench — the only time all game the Eagles scored back-to-back baskets — but Coupeville had the last word.
With her bench losing its mind, swing player Lauren Rose snatched a rebound and drilled a jumper to end the game. It was the first varsity points for the scrappy sophomore, who sprinted back down court, huge smile on her face.
Afterwards, as he contemplated the game, King was all smiles himself.
“Very, very happy about this; it was very good all around,” he said. “This was what I have been asking for all season.”
He was especially thrilled that, even while spending much of the game out on the run, the Wolves only committed a season-low nine turnovers.
“Season? Probably the fewest in any game since I’ve been coaching here!,” King said with an epic grin of his own.
Nine of Coupeville’s 10 players scored, with Kellner and Grove both dropping in six to back Stone’s 27.
Lindsey Roberts (4), Tiffany Briscoe (4), Allison Wenzel (3), Littlejohn (2), Rose (2) and Kyla Briscoe (2) all etched their name in the score-book, while Skyler Lawrence fought hard on the boards during her time on the floor.
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