Haylee Armstrong comes bearing gifts. (Jackie Saia photo)
Tantalizingly close.
A missed free throw here, a miracle buzzer-beating three-ball there, and the Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball team narrowly missed out on what would have been a crowd-pleasing upset victory Friday night.
Instead, it was visiting Orcas Island which got to celebrate, as the Vikings found just enough magic at the right moments to claim a 37-35 victory.
The loss, which came despite some inspired play from the Wolves, drops CHS to 1-6 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 4-11 overall.
Coupeville slips a game-and-a-half behind Friday Harbor (2-4) in the hunt for the final playoff berth for 2B schools in the NWL, but there is still time to change things.
Friday Harbor has four games remaining on its schedule, while the Wolves have three — with the regular-season finale Feb. 6 a showdown between the teams.
Scout Smith’s squad fought back from an early deficit Friday and seemed to have the Vikings on the ropes several times.
Down 7-0 barely a minute into the game, the Wolves pulled back to within 11-6 by the end of the first quarter, with the biggest bucket a Haylee Armstrong three-ball coming off of a steal.
That seemed to spark Coupeville, which held Orcas scoreless for the first seven minutes of the second frame, pulling out to a 14-11 advantage.
Tenley Stuurmans keyed the surge, dishing the ball to Kennedy O’Neill for a layup, before circling around outside to net a silky three-ball set up by a pass from Adeline Maynes.
Orcas proved to be tough to put down for good, however, as the visitors converted back-to-back offensive rebound putbacks to force a 15-15 tie at the half.
The third quarter was a tense affair, with both teams holding the lead, and neither squad able to land a true knockout punch.
Teagan Calkins opened the frame by burying a three-ball from deep on the right side of the floor, but Orcas stung late by banking in a nearly impossible trey literally at the buzzer to pull ahead 26-24.
With the gym getting progressively louder, every play in the fourth quarter seemed to carry considerable weight, and the Wolves rose to the moment.
Down 30-24, Coupeville put together a 10-0 surge that saw four different hometown heroes score.
A free throw from Calkins started things off, with Danica Strong hitting a dagger of a jumper on a play kept alive by Arianna Cunningham outwrestling a foe for an offensive rebound.
From there, a Calkins jumper, a Cunningham layup under great duress, and a high, arcing three-ball off the fingertips of Armstrong helped build a 34-30 lead and potentially set the stage for a celebration.
Which came, but at the wrong end of the floor.
With its back to the wall, Orcas came up big time, closing the game on a 7-1 run, while Coupeville’s final offensive chance came up just short, the ball squirting away during a final-second melee.
While the loss stings, the closeness of the battle once again demonstrates that the win/loss record is a bit deceptive for a feisty Wolf squad which fears no opponent.
Armstrong led Coupeville with 11 points, while Calkins banked in 10 and Stuurmans rattled the rim for six. Maynes, Cunningham, Strong, and O’Neill all chipped in with a bucket as all seven Wolves who played Friday scored.
With her performance, Armstrong, a junior, cracks the 250-point club, becoming the 48th CHS girl to do so between 1974-2026.
With 258 points and counting, she sits #46 all-time and second among active players, with Calkins, a senior, currently at #28 with 370 points.
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