Brittany Powers was one of several Wolves who hit huge fourth-quarter shots Tuesday night. (John Fisken photo)
Guts.
The Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball squad does not back down, does not give in, does not believe it will lose.
And that’s why the Wolves won again Tuesday night.
Because, one player after another stepped into the spotlight, seized their moment and sent their family and friends home riding a wave of euphoria.
Scoring the game’s final six points, the Wolves upended visiting Klahowya 29-27 to remain undefeated in Olympic League play.
They sit at 4-0 (6-0 if you give them forfeits for the two times league foes cancelled due to lack of players) and 8-3 overall.
Playing at home for the first time in 45 days, the young Wolves saved their best for the finale.
Trailing 23-21 coming into the fourth, they got one high-pressure play after another, with every player on the floor stepping up at one point or another.
Brittany Powers got things started when she swished a long jumper from the left side to knot things back up, before Klahowya scored back-to-back buckets to take its biggest lead of the night.
Little did the Eagles know they would never score again.
Sarah Wright pulled Coupeville within a bucket, backing her foe down in the paint before whirling to drop in a softly-banked shot off the glass, then Ema Smith sacrificed her body for the good of the team.
Charging from one end of the court to the other, in a mad attempt to get ahead of the ball-handler, Smith somehow got between the basket and the hard-charging Eagle.
Planting herself squarely in the oncoming path of a runaway freight train, she held her ground and got promptly run over.
A little dazed and confused, Smith happily peeled herself off the hardwood as the ref emphatically whistled an offensive foul on Klahowya, giving CHS the ball and a chance to tie with the clock ticking under a minute.
The Wolves took advantage, beating the Eagle press and putting the ball in Ashlie Shank’s hands.
Playing on the day her dad (Coupeville Superintendent Dr. Jim Shank) was celebrating his birthday, the youngest member of the clan drilled a soft jumper to knot things back up at 27-27.
Re-enter Smith, who got in the middle of a scramble for a loose ball — having been the one to knock the ball free in the first place — and recovered it while being blasted to the floor again.
Bouncing down court, the ever-giddy one grabbed the ball from the ref, and with no fanfare or wasted time, swished both of her free throws to give the Wolves a lead they would not relinquish.
Coupeville had started the game strongly, with Maya Toomey-Stout draining an eye-popping three-ball from the corner that she banked off the glass.
With Shank on a rampage — she dropped six of her team-high nine in the opening quarter — the Wolves ran to an early lead, then built on it later with strong inside play.
Nicole Lester dropped in a pair of buckets to fuel an 8-0 run in the second quarter, the first coming off of a rebound, the second on a picture-perfect play where she relentlessly backed down her defender in the paint.
The Wolves spread out their scoring, with seven of 11 players scratching their names in the scoring column.
Shank had four steals to go with her nine points, while Toomey-Stout rattled home five points and Lester and Wright banked in four apiece.
Powers (3), Ema Smith (2) and Avalon Renninger (2) rounded out the scoring, while Scout Smith ran the point and the three-headed beast of Maddy Hilkey, Tia Wurzrainer and Emma Mathusek harassed the Eagles on defense.
Lester led the Wolves on the boards, collecting seven caroms.
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