Sarah Wright gave Coupeville a third-quarter spark as it rallied to beat Chimacum Friday night. (John Fisken photo)
“We did what we had to, to grind out a win.”
Refusing to bend or break, even after a brief fourth quarter meltdown, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad righted the ship and sailed back home from Chimacum Friday bearing a 42-33 win.
The victory, the team’s fourth straight, lifts the Wolves to 8-3 overall, 4-0 in Olympic League play.
Now a flawless 22-0 in conference play over the past two-and-a-half years, Coupeville is a game-and-a-half up on Port Townsend (2-1) as it seeks its third straight championship banner.
Chimacum (1-3) and Klahowya (0-3), which lost its best player, Maya Ladner, to a season-ending injury this week, bring up the rear.
To keep the league winning streak intact, the Wolves had to overcome an 18-point night from Cowboy star Mechelle Nisbet and a serious stumble down the stretch.
Having rallied to take the lead, Coupeville stretched the margin out to 12 at 35-23, then had what Wolf coach David King termed “a brutal 40-60 seconds.”
How brutal?
When he went to look at the film this morning, he was shocked to find it was more like a 20-second burst of badness, so epic it seemed to last for twice as long in his original memory.
“The wheels fell off and we just lost our way a little,” King said.
An offensive foul during a scramble for a loose ball, a technical on CHS for crossing the line and touching the ball on an in-bounds play, two uncontested layups around a Wolf turnover. Madness.
But Coupeville didn’t get to the top of the league without building some toughness, and the Wolves immediately responded in a manner that cheered King.
“We could have let that get us down, but this team is resilient,” he said. “Brushed it off and regrouped and went back to work playing our brand of basketball.”
Kailey Kellner knocked down a “huge” baseline three-ball, then Kalia Littlejohn, the feistiest one in the bunch, went right at the heart of the Chimacum defense and slew the beast.
Littlejohn, who pumped in five of her season-best nine in the fourth, took the ball straight at Chimacum’s biggest, baddest interior defender and brought her crashing down.
“Kalia attacked hard, all 5-foot-3, and went right at Alice Yaley, who is 6-foot,” King said. “Kalia made the lay up and was fouled. She completed the play by making her free throw.”
Coupeville was dead-on at the charity stripe down the stretch, swishing six free throws to stymie any Cowboy come-back hopes.
Nisbet was on fire in the first quarter, staking the Cowboys to a 13-10 lead at the first break, but the Wolves controlled the game’s final three quarters.
A big factor was Coupeville’s team effort on the very psychical Yaley, who the Wolves held scoreless.
“Our post players, Lindsey (Roberts), Tiffany (Briscoe), Mikayla (Elfrank) and Sarah (Wright) did a great job defending her and limiting her opportunities,” King said. “Our wings helped out with doubling down at times.”
Different players stepped up at different times, as Coupeville continues to excel in the post-Makana Stone era.
Elfrank “came in and really lit a fire on the defensive end,” while Wright “probably played her best quarter on the season (in the third) as a varsity player.”
Senior co-captain Lauren Grove was another who stepped up and grabbed the spotlight, putting together a complete game on both ends of the floor.
“We have been talking all season about going for rebounds and not being a spectator,” King said. “Lauren over her high school career has mastered the art of diving in from the wing on a shot and corralling rebounds.
“Tonight she was at her best.”
Mia Littlejohn sparked the offensive attack, draining a team-high 13 points to go with four rebounds, two steals and three assists, while lil’ sis Kalia backed her with nine points.
Grove (7), Kellner (7), Elfrank (5) and Roberts (1) also scored, with Elfrank (10) and Kellner (9) hauling in 19 of their team’s 34 rebounds.
Coupeville, which has played 9 of 11 games on the road this season, jumped up a slot in the state’s RPI rankings with the win, sliding in at #14 among the 65 girls teams to play 1A ball.
The Wolves will have three straight non-conference games — home Tuesday vs. Sequim, then back on the road to face Mount Vernon Christian and North Mason — before they close the regular season with five league games in their final six contests.
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