Makana Stone rises up and smites Klahowya for two of her game-high 23 Friday. (John Fisken photos)
Wolves Kailey Kellner (42), Lindsey Roberts (middle) and Lauren Grove (3) clamp down on defense.
They got tested, and they responded.
Oh, how they responded.
In the kind of moment that can make or break a season, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad took Klahowya’s best shot Friday and not only weathered it, but stood tall.
The Wolves won 47-38 on their home court to improve to 4-2 overall, 1-0 in Olympic League play.
But it was the way they won that may matter most.
Having to play the final three minutes without their transcendent star, the Wolves not only held their own, they prospered, closing out on a 6-1 spurt fueled by spectacular end-to-end runs by Lauren Grove and Mia Littlejohn.
Coupeville’s worst nightmare came true when Makana Stone, who had poured in 23 points, fouled out with 2:56 on the clock.
With a 41-34 lead and their most reliable scoring weapon reduced to being a very enthusiastic cheerleader, the Wolves could have pulled back and tried to eat clock.
Instead, two of Coupeville’s rising stars seized the spotlight and crushed Klahowya’s spirit, while perhaps giving Wolf coach David King a brief moment or two of angina.
First Grove snatched a rebound, then kicked in her record-setting sprinter speed and artfully weaved her way down the court, slicing all the way to the bucket before King could call for a timeout.
As the ball banked in, Grove spun, steely glint in her gunfighter’s eye, and zipped back down court, where she then poked the ball free, setting up Littlejohn for her own run right into the heart of the beast.
King went up on his toes, but again, one of his feel-no-pressure guards was too quick to give him a chance to do anything but silently marvel as they shot past on their way to pay dirt.
Stone, for her part, was whooping and hollering and high-fiving and then patting Littlejohn on the head, still a leader no matter her own situation.
Two more free throws from Littlejohn and a lock-down defense that throttled Klahowya from the moment Stone left until the Eagles hit a meaningless trey with a second to play, sealed the deal.
The win allowed Coupeville to pick right back up where they left off last season, when they cruised to a 9-0 mark in league play.
Back then they won every conference contest by 15+ points, but Friday’s game was markedly closer.
The Wolves drew first blood, when Stone smacked the opening tip half the length of the court, where Grove snagged it, took half a step and laid the ball up and in before Klahowya’s players could even flinch.
After that, though, the first half was a back-and-forth affair, with the lead never getting bigger than three for Coupeville or one for Klahowya.
Stone threw down nine in the opening quarter, but the Wolves led only 13-11 after they missed six free throws in the first eight minutes.
The Eagles snatched their first lead of the night at 14-13 in the second quarter, and, as the clock ticked down towards halftime, the two teams pulled off back-to-back bombs to enliven things.
Klahowya hit a long trey to knot things at 19, but Coupeville immediately responded on the final play of the half.
Kailey Kellner curled into the deepest, darkest corner on the right sideline, where she flat-out drilled a three-ball with a sweet shot that would have made Larry Bird cry sweet tears of appreciation.
Riding the electricity from her shot, the Wolves broke things open in the third, scoring on their first three possessions.
Littlejohn netted a breakaway layup off of a Kellner steal, then Stone scored back-to-back buckets on a give-and-go and a play where she exploded from the top of the key to the hoop before a single Eagle could think about moving.
From there, Coupeville never lost the lead again, stretching it out to 10, giving a few back, then making their stand once the refs KO’d Stone.
Afterwards, King praised his younger players for stepping up, his blue collar rebounders (Tiffany and Kyla Briscoe) for out-battling their foes all night and Littlejohn for continuing to show leadership under fire.
“This was a gut check for them and they responded nicely,” he said. “That’s what they need to do.”
Littlejohn finished with nine to back Stone’s 23, while Grove and Kellner had six apiece.
Freshman Lindsey Roberts hit a key fourth-quarter bucket in traffic off of a feed from Littlejohn (Kyla Briscoe started the play by going around a Klahowya player to snare a board), while Tiffany Briscoe rounded out the scorers with a free throw.
Coupeville is now off for 11 days, not returning to action until Dec. 22, when it travels to Vashon Island for a non-conference game. After that, another week-long break before hosting La Conner Dec. 30.
The break comes at a perfect time for a Wolf squad which opened with six games in 10 days and currently has several banged-up players.
