Mia Littlejohn, seen here in an earlier game, was one of three Wolves to drain key free throws in the final minute of play Monday. (John Fisken photos)
Wolf fans celebrate their team’s sixth win in its last eight games.
All that free throw practice paid off.
After each player launched 100 shots from the charity stripe for a recent team fundraiser, the hope was the work put in might also pay off in game situations for the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball team.
Boom.
Draining six straight pressure-packed freebies in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter Monday, the Wolves refused to buckle to a late charge from arch-rival South Whidbey, escaping with a 43-32 win.
The sixth victory in the last eight games for CHS, it gave the Wolves a season sweep of the Falcons while improving their record to a shiny 8-4.
Coupeville has one more non-league game left on its schedule (Saturday at Mount Vernon Christian), then will make a run at an Olympic League title.
The Wolves (2-0 in league play) close with seven straight conference games.
While the battle with South Whidbey is no longer a league affair, with the Wolves having jumped out of the Cascade Conference, local bragging rights are huge.
Having already beaten the Falcons in Langley in the season opener, Coupeville took advantage of the emotional backing of the local fans and threatened to run away with this game.
Back-to-back buckets from Julia Myers and Kacie Kiel staked the Wolves to a 31-14 lead midway through the third and the rout was on.
But then it wasn’t, as South Whidbey suddenly started hitting from long range. The young Falcons drilled three treys in an 11-2 run to get the lead down to single digits.
Wynter Thorne, who won that charity free throw contest, calmly swished a pair of free throws at the end of the third to put the lead back to 10 at 35-25, but then Coupeville’s offense went ice-cold.
Held scoreless for almost five minutes to start the fourth, the Wolves finally dropped in a bucket on a short jumper by Hailey Hammer.
Steadily chipping away, South Whidbey got the lead down to 37-32, but time ran out on the Falcons.
Forced to foul to stop the clock, the Falcons needed a miracle, and Coupeville wasn’t in a giving mood.
Madeline Strasburg, Mia Littlejohn and Makana Stone took turns going to the line for the Wolves, and all three were dead-eye marksmen, draining both of their free throws.
With the lead stretched back out and the final Falcon shots bouncing off the rim, the celebration was on.
The Wolves had opened the game on the attack, with five different players scoring in the first quarter.
Strasburg opened the flood gates with a three-point bomb that arced gracefully over a defender’s outstretched fingertips, while Kiel dropped in a pair of soft, sweet jumpers of her own.
Fellow senior Monica Vidoni, playing one of her most complete games of the year, used her height advantage to knock the Falcons around.
First she rose up to swat away a South Whidbey shot, then, on the ensuing Wolf possession, took the ball hard to the hole, overpowering her defender, banking the ball off the glass and converting a free throw for a three-point play.
While the first quarter was a round-robin affair, the second was all about Stone seizing the spotlight.
The junior roared down the floor, three steps faster than any Falcon, scoring 11 of her 13 points in the quarter.
Using a combination of whirling, twisting moves, Stone finished the game with 11 rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals.
Strasburg, getting back in the flow after missing most of the season with an injury, pumped in 11 in support of Stone, while Kiel hit for six.
Myers (4), Vidoni (3), Thorne (2), Littlejohn (2) and Hammer (2) rounded out the scorers, while Vidoni and Littlejohn each had four rebounds. Kiel doled out three assists and McKenzie Bailey gave the team a spark off the bench.
