Madison McMillan led Coupeville in scoring Saturday night. (Kaitlyn Leavell photo)
The basket stopped accepting Coupeville’s offerings in the final minutes.
After waging a tense tussle with Toledo for three-plus quarters Saturday, the Wolf varsity girls’ basketball squad went cold late, allowing the Riverhawks to storm their way to a non-conference victory.
The visitors closed on a 17-2 run across the game’s final six minutes, turning a five-point advantage into a 40-20 win.
The loss drops a rebuilding Coupeville squad to 0-2 on the season.
Megan Richter’s squad will have six days to work on its shooting touch, not returning to action against a rival until a trip to Sultan next Saturday, Dec. 9.
Saturday’s rumble, coming against a largely unknown foe, was a close, and low-scoring affair for much of the afternoon.
Madison McMillan drilled a quick shot mere seconds into play to stake CHS to a 2-0 lead, but the Wolves hit a wall after that.
Coupeville’s next bucket didn’t come until right before the end of the first quarter, courtesy a jumper from the side by Lyla Stuurmans, cutting the lead to 8-4.
The second quarter was an equal opportunity freeze-out, as the teams combined to hit six free throws … and not a single field goal.
Skylar Parker and Katie Marti connected on shots from the charity stripe, but CHS was down 11-7 at the half.
Things picked up in the third frame, though mainly for Toledo.
McMillan banked in a pair of buckets — one on a slash to the basket, the other off of an offensive rebound — but the visitors swished the game’s only three-ball as they pushed the advantage out to 21-14 heading into the fourth.
The Wolves, who played inspired defense for stretches of the game, cut the margin down to 23-18 after back-to-back buckets from Mia Farris and McMillan.
Farris made off with a steal, hitting the jets and sliding past a pursuing defender on a charge to the hoop, while McMillan knocked down a note-perfect pullup jumper.
But that was where it ended for Coupeville, at the moment where McMillan’s field goal dropped through the net and hit the hardwood.
Ramping up its attack, Toledo suddenly broke through and in a big way, raining down a series of buckets to pull away.
Farris sweetly swished a pair of free throws late, but Coupeville couldn’t get a shot from the field to drop in the game’s final minutes, mirroring its earlier struggles.
McMillan paced the Wolves with a season-high eight points, while Marti added five in support of her fellow junior.
Farris (4), Stuurmans (2), and Parker (1) also scored, while Jada Heaton, Teagan Calkins, Kayla Arnold, and Reese Wilkinson also saw floor time.
It was the varsity debut for the latter two of that group.
And in an intriguing side note, Farris, who is tied for #2 on the team in scoring with 10 points across the first two games, has notched all of her points in the fourth quarter this season.
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