Senior Kacie Kiel (right) embraces Makana Stone during the post-game celebration. (Amy King photos)
The best basketball team this school has seen in years.
It wasn’t the prettiest win of the season, but, frankly, who cares?
Long after the particulars of Friday night are forgotten, what will loom large is this — a splendid six-pack of seniors who wore the red and black with great pride exited the Coupeville High School gym heads high (even when a rival player slapped one of them in the face during post-game handshakes), winners to the end.
Riding a season-best 27-point performance from junior Makana Stone, the Wolves crunched visiting Chimacum 53-38 to nab their sixth straight win and improve to 14-5 overall, 8-0 in Olympic League play.
There is much of the season left to go — a regular season finale at Klahowya Monday, then it’s on to the playoffs — but this night was the final time Kacie Kiel, Madeline Strasburg, Monica Vidoni, Hailey Hammer, Julia Myers and Wynter Thorne would play in front of their home fans.
Senior Nights are tricky things, full of emotion. Teams can come out sky high or awash in tears.
Playing a team they had routed twice already, the Wolves struggled a bit to find a groove.
But, they were also good enough when it mattered that the occasional shakiness, while not good for Wolf coach David King’s mental health, wasn’t fatal.
Chimacum hit a three-pointer to open the second quarter, cutting Coupeville’s tenuous lead to 14-12.
Instead of panicking, the Wolves put together their best run of the night, a 12-0 surge that all but sealed the deal.
It began with a bang as Kiel drilled a jumper after Stone snatched a rebound and fed her the ball, then Coupeville essentially pulled off a six-point play.
Once again proving the hype is real, Strasburg morphed into her Maddie Big Time alter ego.
Picking the pocket of a Chimacum player, she then ran down the hapless Cowboy, using her shoulder to knock her rival a good five feet as she crashed hard to the basket.
When she was rightfully rewarded with two free throws, as the defender was clearly moving, the Chimacum coach about swallowed his tongue, turning bright red as he let loose at the refs.
Now, it’s true the reffing crew at this affair was frankly God awful all night, but, this time, they were correct (and also a bit touchy, as they levied a technical on the hyperventilating Cowboy head man).
After Strasburg dropped in all four of her free throws (two for the foul, two for the T), Coupeville retained the ball, with Stone absolutely blowing up her defender to cap a six-point surge in about 1.4 seconds.
From that point on, two trends developed.
One, the refs would get worse and worse and … wait for it … worse.
At one point the game’s worst ref spent 20 seconds laughing and pointing to an acquaintance in the crowd, then turned and immediately called a foul on a play HE DIDN’T EVEN SEE.
Two, every time the Cowboys started to make a push, the Wolves would pull it together long enough to blunt any runs.
Mia Littlejohn made off with a dandy steal where she kept the ball alive by hitting it off the ref in her way (the crowd roars!), Julia Myers dropped some severe side eye as Chimacum’s interior players got progressively nastier with their elbows and Stone was her usual awe-inspiring self.
She finished with 15 rebounds, three assists, three steals and four explosive blocks to go with her scoring bonanza, before exiting with two minutes to play.
Kiel added eight points and three assists, Strasburg pumped in seven points and made off with four steals and Myers dropped in six while snatching nine boards.
Vidoni (2), McKenzie Bailey (1), Littlejohn (1) and Hammer (1) rounded out the scoring, with Hammer also hauling in eight rebounds and thunking a Cowboy in the face nice and solidly on a blocked shot attempt.
Her smile as the ref whistled her for the foul was worth the price of admission.
It is moments like that which will be remembered, and these Wolves, the seniors and their young running mates, have provided Coupeville fans with a ton of them.
From here on out, Killer and Elbows and Maddie Big Time and the whole electrifying crew will take their high-wire act on the road for the remainder of the season.
As they go, Wolf Nation, as one, says simply, “Thank you.”
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