With a win Thursday, Chelsea Prescott and her Wolf teammates kept alive their hopes of earning a share of the Olympic League title. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
It has been a season-long battle.
A rebuilding Coupeville High School girls basketball squad, especially after it lost its top scorer to a season-ending injury, has had issues putting the ball in the bucket.
On many nights, the Wolf defense has been a true bright spot, but the offense has largely been a work in progress.
Until the fourth quarter Thursday afternoon.
Suddenly, everything clicked and Coupeville ripped off a 20-1 tear over the game’s final eight minutes, running host Klahowya off the floor to a 36-21 tune.
“We found lightning in a bottle!,” exclaimed Coupeville’s very-happy coach, David King.
The win lifts the Wolves to 5-3 in Olympic League play, 7-13 overall and keeps alive their hopes of garnering a share of the conference title.
Coupeville, which has hung three consecutive league title placards on the school’s Wall of Fame, still needs everything to break its way Saturday.
The Wolves face Chimacum (4-4), while Port Townsend (6-2) plays Klahowya (1-7).
Wins by Coupeville and Klahowya would leave CHS and PTHS with identical 6-3 marks.
While the schools would share the title, Port Townsend has clinched the league’s #1 playoff seed, since it owns a tiebreaker, having taken two of three from Coupeville this season.
Saturday’s game, which is Senior Night for Kyla Briscoe, Allison Wenzel and Mikayla Elfrank, will determine if the Wolves enter the postseason as a #2 or #3 seed.
Win and Coupeville hosts a loser-out playoff game Feb. 10, one win away from the double elimination portion of districts.
Fall to Chimacum Saturday, a team it has split two games with, and CHS would be the #3 seed and open the playoffs Feb. 8 at home.
Under that scenario, they would have to survive two loser-out games to advance.
Playing their final regular season road game Thursday, the Wolves looked like they were following a familiar, and distressing, pattern.
Shot went up, but shots refused to stay in the cylinder, and CHS trailed 20-16 headed to the fourth.
A strong defensive effort kept Klahowya from pulling too far away, but buckets, any kind of buckets, was what King desired.
And the Wolves answered.
“After struggling through the first three quarters, we caught fire in all facets of the game,” he said. “Everything clicked.”
While they trailed, the Wolves were playing with a great deal of confidence, something King praised in the huddle.
“I could see a momentum shift and that we needed to keep up the effort,” he said. “It all started with our press and defensive effort.
“We got a couple of steals and easy buckets to start the fourth, then caused a couple of more turnovers,” King added. “That got our half-court defense ramped up and helped us settle down on offense.
“The jumpers we were missing in the first half all of a sudden looked smooth and put up with confidence. They started falling in bunches.”
A trio of Wolves provided the late-game offensive heroics, with Ema Smith knocking down eight in the quarter, Kyla Briscoe adding seven and Lindsey Roberts capping things with five.
Briscoe and Roberts both netted huge three-balls, while Smith (4-4) and Briscoe (2-2) combined to ice the game with flawless free-throw shooting.
All of the fourth-quarter free throws were of the 1-and-1 variety, as well, putting an added degree of danger for the Wolves, who responded like seasoned pros.
The comeback had begun in the third quarter, when King used his bench players to light a spark.
“We looked to be heading into a tailspin, so we went to our bench quickly and often trying to find a flicker of light,” he said. “Chelsea (Prescott), Allison, Avalon (Renninger) and Hannah (Davidson) did just that with their effort and defense.
Scout Smith rattled home a big bucket to turn the tide, then Roberts dropped in a trey to end the third quarter.
Riding the momentum, the Wolves dominated in the fourth by “controlling the boards and being the aggressor.”
Roberts went coast-to-coast on one play, slapping home a layup after she snagged a defensive rebound, then charged right at the heart of the Klahowya defense.
“I’ve been waiting for her to make a play like that!,” said a proud coach.
Ema Smith paced Coupeville with a game-high 13, while Roberts (10), Briscoe (9) and Scout Smith (4) also scratched their names in the book.
“We only had four players score, but each player contributed in this victory,” King said. “Defense doesn’t always show up in the stats, but all nine players contributed at some point to our success in the third and fourth quarters.”
Roberts snagged seven boards, as all nine Wolves nabbed at least one rebound. Briscoe (four assists and five steals) and Ema Smith (six steals and six rebounds) also filled up the stat sheet.
Sarah Wright capped the game with a play which perfectly captured Coupeville’s grit and will to win.
With the game all but done, an Eagle tried to take the ball to the hoop hard for a last-second layup, only to have Wright slide into place, plant herself and absorb the full brunt of the charge, causing an offensive foul call as the buzzer rang.
JV sits out (again):
The Wolf young guns failed to play for the second-straight game thanks to extenuating circumstances.
Issues with refs (or the lack of them) cost Coupeville’s #2 squad a chance to play Tuesday at Sequim.
Thursday, it was the cancellation of ferry runs, which ensured CHS had to ankle for the exits at Silverdale early.
The young Wolves sit at 7-10 heading into Saturday’s season finale.
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