Amanda Fabrizi (John Fisken photo)
Amanda Fabrizi wants to end her high school basketball career in the playoffs.
That much is certain, because Tuesday night, with a rivalry game against South Whidbey slipping away in the fourth quarter and Coupeville High School’s playoff hopes sliding from solid to troublesome, Fabrizi suddenly snapped on her Beast Mode face.
Hitting back-to-back crunch-time buckets, part of her seven points in the final quarter, she crushed the hopes and dreams of her Langley hosts and shut the Falcons fans up as quickly as they had started to get annoying.
With the one-two punch of senior captains Fabrizi and Breeanna Messner combining for 11 points, the Wolves closed on an 18-4 run to snag a 48-38 victory.
Lifting Coupeville to 7-8 overall, 4-6 in Cascade Conference play, it stakes them to a three-game lead with four to play over their Island rivals (2-13, 1-9) in the race for a 1A playoff berth.
It also gave CHS a season sweep of South Whidbey and means one more Wolf league win, or one more Falcon loss, and it’s a done deal — we’re talking about the playoffs.
Things weren’t looking great at the start of the fourth, however.
CHS coach David King had been slapped with a technical by a thin-skinned ref, shots suddenly weren’t falling and a back-and-forth game was starting to trend towards the Falcons, who notched a free-throw to open a 34-30 lead.
Without flinching, Coupeville dug down and found the heart of a champion that Wolf super fan Steve Kiel was hollering for them to locate.
Fabrizi hit three free-throws, Madeline Strasburg knocked down another one and Messner made not one, but two, huge shots under extreme duress as the Wolves ripped off an 8-0 run.
Messner’s first came when she snagged an air ball on a three-point shot, and made the miss look like an unexpected pass, as she hit a running layin.
The second bucket was even more spectacular, as she grabbed a deflected shot and put it up over her head while floating under the backboard with little room to see the hoop.
Twice the scrappy Falcons responded, hitting short jumpers to cut the lead to a bucket, and twice Coupeville hit right back.
The first came on a Makana Stone put-back off on an offensive rebound, then, after South Whidbey trimmed the lead to 40-38, Fabrizi grabbed center stage and flexed some muscle.
She nailed a pull-up jumper off of a Stone rebound and quick pass, then broke free and streaked down-court on the next play, catching Stone’s graceful outlet pass in mid-stride, before slicing between two defenders for the game-icing layup.
Before they hit a rough spot in the second quarter, the Wolves had opened strongly.
Coupeville went on a 7-0 run to end the first quarter, with a pair of free throws from Stone, a tough offensive rebound from Messner and then a rainbow of a three-point bomb from the ice-water-in-her-veins Fabrizi.
South Whidbey’s lone senior, guard Madi Boyd, spurred her team with a variety of slashing buckets, however, and the Falcons reclaimed the lead right before halftime.
The third quarter was a tussle, with Julia Myers keeping Coupeville alive with a pair of sweet jumpers and a ferocious blocked shot.
Coupeville spread the offensive wealth around, with the trio of Messner, Fabrizi and Stone each hitting for 10. Strasburg popped for eight, Myers banked home six and Kacie Kiel — a dynamo on the boards — rounded out the scoring tally with four.
Wynter Thorne, Monica Vidoni, McKayla Bailey and Carlie Rosenkrance all saw playing time, as well, with each Wolf chipping in and filling their role for a team that now sits on the cusp of a playoff berth.
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