Mia Littlejohn (tongue stuck out) prepares to emerge from behind a pack of JV players and kick-start her eight-point, four-assist night. (John Fisken photo)
It’s not going to be an overnight thing.
Five of the eight players who saw floor time for the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad Wednesday night were making their varsity debut.
And it showed at times, with the Wolves veering from looking very good to very much a work in progress.
Yet, and this is a huge positive, even in flux, even bothered by too many turnovers and too many ticky-tacky fouls whistled by an extra-enthusiastic batch of refs, Coupeville came within a bounce of sending their season opener to overtime.
Makana Stone’s shot with a second to play refused to stay in the hoop, however, popping back out and allowing visiting South Whidbey to escape with a 32-30 non-conference win.
If the shot had dropped, it would have capped a furious 6-0 run to close the game, as Coupeville battled back twice in the fourth quarter to push the veteran-laden Falcons to the brink.
After entering the final eight minutes tied at 23, thanks to a third-quarter performance that was the highlight of the evening, the Wolves fell asleep offensively to start the fourth.
With Stone on the bench with four fouls, Coupeville went scoreless for more than four minutes and watched South Whidbey surge to a 28-23 lead.
Regrouping after a timeout, the Wolves got a free-throw from Stone and a hard-fought bucket in the paint from Mia Littlejohn to cut the lead back to a bucket.
The Falcons responded with a crowd-deflating three-ball from the top of the key, then slipped in a free-throw to stake themselves to a 32-26 lead and seemed ready to coast home.
Coupeville wouldn’t go down without one last fight, getting free throws from Stone and Lauren Grove, before Littlejohn hit a runner with four seconds to play.
Back within two, the Wolves forced a turnover in the back court with less than three seconds to play, setting up the miracle finale the home crowd had come to see.
But, while Stone had a decent look, she had to shoot quickly over a pack of onrushing Falcons and the rim refused to bend.
That capped a game that started slowly (South Whidbey led 4-3 after both teams played sloppy, tentative ball over the first eight minutes), went a little south in the second (Coupeville trailed 15-10 at the half), then came back into focus in the third.
Kailey Kellner came out firing, hitting a bucket off a batted ball in the paint before circling outside and draining a sweet trey from the left corner that barely moved the net as it swished through.
Coupeville reclaimed the lead at 17-16 when Littlejohn fed Stone as she slashed to the hoop at the five-minute mark.
The first lead for the Wolves since the game sat at 3-2, it didn’t last, as South Whidbey immediately dropped a dagger of a three-pointer.
But the Wolves were really jelling for the first time all game, with Stone backing down the Falcons in the paint and her teammates hitting all of their freebies.
Kyla Briscoe and Littlejohn each went 2-for-2 at the charity stripe to end the quarter, each time knotting the game back up.
Stone, the defending 1A Olympic League MVP, opened her senior season with a flourish, throwing down 12 points, snatching 14 rebounds, making off with seven steals and flying high to reject three Falcon shots.
Littlejohn tossed in eight and Kellner banged home five in support, while Kyla Briscoe (2), Grove (1), Tiffany Briscoe (1) and freshman Lindsey Roberts (1) rounded out the scorers.
Kellner (10) and Grove (7) helped Stone clean the boards, while Littlejohn dealt out four assists and Roberts collected two blocks.
The game marked the varsity basketball debut for the Briscoe sisters, Grove, Roberts and Lauren Rose, who came off the bench to inject hustle and scrappy ball-hawking.
