Kalia Littlejohn gazes adoringly at big sis Mia, after the sophomore helped spark Coupeville to a huge playoff win Friday night. (Photo courtesy Kalia Littlejohn)
16-5 and off to regionals for the first time in a decade. (Amy King photo)
They screamed. They wept tears of joy. They grabbed each other in bear hugs and twirled around.
And that was just the moms.
Waves of joy and elation swept out of the locker room and across the floor at Sumner High School Friday night, as the Coupeville High school girls’ basketball squad and its substantial rooting contingent celebrated the program’s epic 49-33 district playoff thrashing of Seattle Christian.
Payback to the team that knocked CHS out of the postseason in an overtime thriller last season, the victory lifted the Wolves to 16-5 and propelled them to regionals for the first time in a decade.
Now one of just 16 teams left with a shot at a 1A state title, Coupeville will return to action either Friday, Feb. 26 or Saturday, Feb. 27.
The foe and place of battle will be revealed after district play wraps up Saturday.
Regionals will be a loser-out affair, with the winner hitting the road to Yakima Mar. 3-5 for the eight-team, double-elimination state tourney.
If the Wolves play like they did Friday night, anything is possible in the coming game(s).
After being roughed up by a physical Charles Wright squad in a four-point loss in their opening game at districts Wednesday, Coupeville showed, without a doubt, they had taken the lessons learned to heart.
With five girls firing as one, regardless of which players were on the floor, the Wolves were aggressive, they were ball-hawks, they racked up a steady diet of bruises from hitting the floor in pursuit of loose balls and rebounds, and they frankly weren’t takin’ no crap from no one.
“I’m so impressed with the game these players put together tonight!,” said exhausted but elated CHS coach David King as his players whooped and hollered in the muggy gym.
With their leader stalking the sidelines all night, the young Wolves responded to his pleas, listened to his instruction and made their mentor proud.
And it all started with defense.
In-your-face, take-the-ball-away-and-knock-their-butt-on-the-floor defense.
“We brought our A+ game and had our best defensive game all year,” King said.
“I need to start by spotlighting Lauren Grove and the outstanding defensive effort all game on #15,” he added. “That was one of the most impressive defensive efforts I’ve seen at a high school girls basketball game.”
Seattle Christian, which loves to drop the three-ball, found themselves constantly besieged by the Wolves, who rarely let the Warriors get an uncontested shot off.
“The whole team was outstanding,” King said. “We made a strategic move and instead of putting Makana (Stone) on one of their best offensive players we moved Kailey (Kellner) into that spot. All game Kailey frustrated and held #33 in check.
“It doesn’t end there. Kyla (Briscoe) took turns on both players and didn’t miss a beat and matched the intensity that the other two had on defense.
“Not to be outdone, Makana, Tiffany (Briscoe), Lindsey (Roberts) and Mia (Littlejohn) brought the defensive effort with great help defense that really made us play defense as one.”
Coupeville’s defense made up for an unforgiving basket on the offensive end in the first quarter.
The Wolves got shots, decent shots, a whole lot of shots in fact, but as the minutes started to add up and the ball found even more creative ways to rattle out, pop loose and skitter away from the rim, it would have been easy to panic.
But not on this night.
Stone finally got Coupeville on the board when she soared over two players, snatched a carom and put the rebound back up and in with just 17 seconds left in the opening quarter.
Trailing only 6-2 heading into the second, saved by their scrappiness on defense, the Wolves finally unleashed the beast.
Littlejohn split the defense with a scorching pass to Stone for a layup to kick off the second, then Coupeville claimed the lead for good with an 8-0 run midway through the quarter.
Once they were ahead, the Wolves started to put the hammer down, led by their sophomore point guard, who was at her feisty best.
Bobbing and weaving, barking at opposing players and verbally spurring on her teammates, Littlejohn went for seven of her nine points in a four-minute stretch, capping it with a cold-blooded trey from the top with just five ticks on the clock.
Her dagger (and the yelling of the Coupeville moms) punched a hole right through the heart of the scattered Seattle Christian fans, who started off mild and got quiet really, really fast when faced with the power of Whidbey-cultivated lungs.
If the Warriors thought they were still in the game, that changed in a hurry after halftime.
Stone strode from the locker room, all but dropping her cape James Brown style, and went on a rampage, tossing down 12 points in the third, each basket more explosive than the one before it.
Midway through the quarter she spun past a befuddled defender, who was left looking one way while Stone went the other way, and banked home her 400th point of the season.
Now sitting with 412 points in 21 games (19.6 a night), she joins Brianne King as the only Wolf female hoops stars to score that much in a single season.
She wasn’t the only weapon firing in the third, though, as Littlejohn stormed end to end for a bucket and Kellner came crashing through the paint twice for hard-earned buckets.
The junior sharpshooter, always dangerous from the corners, played like a beast in the paint, her braids flying behind her as she used and abused the Warriors.
Never relenting, the Wolf defense stayed ramped-up in the fourth, forcing Seattle Christian to take unbalanced shots. And then, each time, two to three CHS girls hit the boards in unison, a direct contrast to Wednesday.
With eight of the ten girls on the roster seeing floor time (Skyler Lawrence made her playoff debut while Lauren Rose and Allison Wenzel were raucous on the bench in support), Coupeville overcame not really being fully healthy.
“Tiffany is and has been playing on a sprained ankle and was solid on defense,” King said. “Lindsey has been battling being sick all week, hasn’t complained once.
“And every time I called on her to check in she was ready.”
Stone made it 21-for-21 this season with double-doubles, racking up 24 points and 20 rebounds, while Kellner was a killer, throwing down 12, snagging 10 boards and dealing out five assists.
Littlejohn popped for nine, snatched five boards, dealt out three assists, drove Seattle Christian’s ball-handlers to distraction and danced in the locker room afterwards as her teammates played drums on the lockers.
Grove rounded out the offensive assault with four points, while she (6) and Kyla Briscoe (5) accounted for another 11 rebounds as Coupeville thoroughly dominated the glass.
With 13 assists to just 11 turnovers (“our passing game was good all game”), the Wolves put together their most complete game at the biggest moment possible.
The win was the first-ever playoff victory for a basketball team from the 1A Olympic League, which was a combined 0-15 in girls and boys postseason action in its first two seasons.
Now, with a week to prepare for another battle, Coupeville coaches David and Amy King, who will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary at practice Monday, have time to get their players healthy, while basking (a bit) in the afterglow.
“This was a true team effort from top to bottom!,” David King said. “Every player was engaged the whole game and wouldn’t settle for anything other than a win.
“I’m so impressed!”
