Coupeville Sports

      There was a time when Amanda Fabrizi (top) and Breeanna Messner were giddy and care-free. Tuesday night was not one of those times.

They tell us there are seven stages of grief, and, if you work through them all, you’ll come out the other end a happier person.

“They” are idiots.

There reaches a point in this hallowed season of the god-awful ref where you figure it can’t go any lower, it can’t be any worse.

Coupeville High School basketball, its players, its coaches and its fans have gone through shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, depression and now … nope … we’re circling back to anger, and we’re gonna be there for quite some time.

“Little Napoleon” was nowhere to be seen Tuesday night, but his comrades in arms, “Mr. Ed,” “The Bandit Queen” and “Fibber McGee” (ask your great-grandparents…) did just fine taking a thrilling, back-and-forth basketball brawl and then interjecting themselves in the end in a way that had to be witnessed in person to fully comprehend the epic dastardliness mixed with raw stupidity mixed with “how did I get a refereeing certificate?” look on all three refs faces.

Pay attention here. It’s going to get wild.

The Wolf girl hoopsters were pulling off a win for the ages, storming back from six down with under a minute to play against visiting Sultan. Amanda Fabrizi drilled a jumper that would have made a weaker woman quiver in her high tops, then the Wolves forced a turnover in the back-court, then Fabrizi slid two free-throws through the net, then the Wolves forced a five-second violation on the Turks and then …

No, wait. Despite “Mr. Ed” counting the five seconds down and loudly making the call, the third ref, “Fibber McGee,” suddenly claimed he had heard the Sultan coach call a timeout BEFORE the five-second violation.

Which is interesting, since he was nowhere near the coach, the gym was rockin’ with noise and the Sultan coach all but blushed once he realized he was getting away with grand theft basketball. While the three refs giggled like naughty kids at half-court.

The second consecutive home game in which a ref has knifed the Wolf girls not in the back, but fully in the chest with multiple witnesses and the clock running out, the game ended not with Coupeville having a chance to tie or win the game on a final possession, but in a hail of Turk free throws which bumped the final score to 47-42, or 1-0, mission accomplished, in ref speak.

There will be many who think we are whining, we are complaining, we don’t want to play the same game every other team is playing. To them I say, go stuff yourself.

We have seen a visiting player throw a punch (and NOT get ejected), a visiting player get two technicals (and NOT get ejected), a visiting player foul out (and NOT get removed) — all in the same game.

Tuesday, it was more subtle for awhile. A Sultan player tripped over her own feet and sprawled in the paint … and the foul was called on a Wolf 10 feet away. A Sultan player threw an elbow to Hailey Hammer’s head, and Hammer was called for the foul (apparently you can’t flinch).

But all the worse refs always save their best moments for soul-crushing time, and, once again, this trio hit that one out of the park.

And it stinks, because it put a damper on a hard-nosed game that went back-and-forth and featured Fabrizi busting out the Superwoman jersey. Scoring 11 of her game-high 15 points in the second half, she bounced back from early foul trouble to light up the scoreboard.

#3 was everywhere, hitting a leaning runner on a feed from Makana Stone, dropping in a three-pointer from the side that went high enough to scrape the gym ceiling before finding the bottom of the net, and basically living up to the first three letters of her last name — Fab.

She got help from everywhere, as Coupeville broke Sultan’s press with ease, improved their free-throw shooting, and shared the ball. Bessie Walstad and Breeanna Messner each banged for six, while Hammer and Lauren Escalle each popped for five. Stone tossed in three and Jai’Lysa Hoskins dumped in a bucket while hauling down rebound after rebound in traffic.

The Wolves also showed a great deal of resilience, rallying time and again. Down by five at the half, they ripped off a 13-2 run to open the third quarter, with Fabrizi and Walstad each tossing in four.

The loss, the sixth straight for Coupeville, drops the Wolves to 5-12 overall, 3-8 in Cascade Conference play.

With South Whidbey beating Lakewood 50-46, the Wolves trail the Falcons (5-6) by two games with three to play in the hunt for the #2 playoff seed of the three 1A schools in the conference.

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       Haley Marx gets some serious ponytail action going as she hauls in a rebound. (John Fisken photos)

    See? This is what it looks like when Bessie Walstad MOVES. At the end of the game, she was PLANTED.

And there it is, that old familiar feeling of being kicked in the stomach.

In this season of the god-awful ref, an old, familiar face showed up in Coupeville again Tuesday night. He was pompous. He was overly proud of how he explained every last call like he was talking to a classroom full of first graders. He stared down Wolf coaches and fans.

And then, when it mattered most, he stepped in and effectively stole the game.

The words “Bessie Walstad never moved!!” will go down in history along side “Back and to the left” when it comes to assassinations. Because that’s what happened. Coupeville got whacked.

In a girls’ basketball game that, while it wasn’t the most beautifully played game ever, was tense and close and exciting, everything came down to one final play. Coupeville and visiting Lakewood were knotted at 35 after Amanda Fabrizi had hit back-to-back sparkling jumpers (the second off of a Walstad rebound) in the game’s final seconds.

The Cougars brought the ball up under careful pressure (“No fouls!” thundered Wolf assistant coach Brittany Black as Coupeville broke the huddle), looking for a final shot. The Wolves tensed as the ball came inside.

And then Little Napoleon struck, taking the game out of the player’s hands, calling a foul on Walstad, a Wolf senior captain, who had committed the great crime of having the player she was guarding back right over her like an out-of-control semi truck.

To repeat: Bessie Walstad never moved!

But Little Napoleon twirled his imaginary six-shooters, then curled his bad guy mustache and let the Cougars hit one of two free throws with 1.8 seconds to play. Knife still stuck firmly in chest, Coupeville had a desperation half-court shot from Breeanna Messner fall short at the buzzer and staggered off on the short end of a 36-35 referee-aided assassination.

Emerging later from a somber locker room, Coupeville coach David King shook his head softly.

“I never like to blame the officiating…”

And then his words trailed off and he sighed. Deeply.

The final play marred what should have been a fourth quarter to remember for Fabrizi, who hit three pressure-packed jumpers and wrestled a ball away from a Lakewood player in a tussle that ended with the otherwise ladylike Wolf guard inadvertently drop-kicking her opponent in the face.

Her take-down set up what looked like a great ending, as Walstad corralled a rebound, flung it to Messner at the top of the key, then watched as Messner threaded a pass between defenders to Fabrizi, who never hesitated, knocking down the game-tying jumper from the side with mere seconds to play.

Things shouldn’t have been that close, however, as the Wolves were obviously a better team. But they were also weakened by illness (no Katie Kiel, a limited Makana Stone, Lauren Escalle and Haley Marx), had trouble scoring inside and were tripped up by their old arch-nemesis, missed free throws.

Coupeville clanged the rim from the charity stripe, hitting just three of 19. Lakewood wasn’t much better, at nine of 23, but made five in the final period, including the most unkind one of all at the end.

Fabrizi paced the Wolves with 10 points, while Stone  banged away for six, with her best play a rebound she put back up and in at the halftime buzzer.

Messner, Walstad and Jai’Lysa Hoskins popped for four apiece, Escalle knocked down three and Hailey Hammer and Haley Marx dropped in a bucket apiece, with Marx’s basket coming off of a tough rebound and put back in the paint.

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