Matthew Kelley lets fly. (John Fisken photos)
Boom!
Matthew Kelley plunged the dagger in big-time Saturday, as he and his Coupeville SWISH 7th grade boys’ basketball squad pulled off a rally in the final seconds to stun arch-rival South Whidbey.
Kelley scored the game’s final five points, including a buzzer-beating three-ball, to lift the Wolves to a 24-21 win.
The victory improved Coupeville to 2-0 heading into a showdown next weekend with a very strong Mount Vernon Mayhem squad.
After leading for much of the game Saturday, the Wolves fell behind at the worst possible moment.
Down 21-19 with 36 seconds to play, they needed big plays and got them.
Michael Laska, the mighty mite, ripped down a rebound to give the ball back to Coupeville.
After Kelley dropped a quick runner in the key to knot things at 21, the Wolves pressed on the ensuing in-bounds play and disrupted South Whidbey on back-to-back chances.
On the first one, Sage Downes knocked the ball out of bounds.
On the second one, the Falcons threw the ball away, the basketball zinging over the head of a player who turned and clasped his head in frustration.
With the ball in their hands and five ticks on the clock, Coupeville gave the ball to Kelley and he charged straight up-court.
South Whidbey went back on its heels and Kelley went straight up and drilled the wide-open trey, looking a whole lot like Wolf legend Ian Smith when he did the same thing in a high school varsity game at Langley five years ago.
Both shots were game-winners and both shots induced tears in Falcon Nation — a beautiful combo for Wolf fans everywhere.
Kelley paced Coupeville with 13 while Jake Mitten dropped in six.
Hawthorne Wolfe and Daniel Olson added a bucket apiece while Connor Barton rounded out the scoring with a free-throw.
“The boys all played strong,” said Coupeville coach Pat Kelley. “We were just really off until the very end, when it mattered most.”
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