Wolf gunner Kailey Kellner tries out her Senior Night present from her teammates. (Amy King photos)
27-0 in Olympic League play.
This is no small thing.
For three years, night in and night out, the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball program has overcome every obstacle, found a winning formula and set a standard of the highest order.
Using a brutally-efficient run in the second quarter to bust things open Saturday night, the Wolves bounced Port Townsend 41-31 on Senior Night to put a cap (for now) on the best run the 1A Olympic League has seen in any sport.
With the win, Coupeville heads into the postseason at 15-4, having finished off a third-consecutive 9-0 season in league play.
Their 27-0 mark in league games dwarfs Klahowya girls (20-0) and boys soccer (12-0) and Coupeville girls tennis (11-0) among the four varsity programs which have never fallen since the league debuted in 2014.
The Wolves will have 10 days off, before hitting the road to open the district playoffs.
Coupeville travels to Bellarmine Prep High School Feb. 14 to face a yet-to-be-determined foe. Win or lose, they head right back Feb. 16 and (possibly) Feb. 18.
They need two playoff wins to return to the state tourney.
To see their path, pop over to:
http://www.olympicleague.com/tournament.php?tournament_id=2187&sport=12
The regular season finale wasn’t a complete romp, as Port Townsend came out aggressively in the first quarter, building an 8-5 lead.
Coupeville responded by inserting junior fireball Mikayla Elfrank into the lineup, and things took a quick turn in favor of the Wolves.
She made an immediate impact, draining a three-ball from the top of the arc on her first trip down the floor, then added a runner off of a beautiful set-up pass from Mia Littlejohn.
With the game tied at 10-10 at the first break, Elfrank grabbed a quick swig of water, then broke the game open with one wild play.
Shooting the gap between two RedHawks, she went airborne, speared a pass on the second quarter’s first play and beat the pack all the way to the other end for a layup that meant far more than just two points.
Port Townsend looked like they had been rocked on the play, and they didn’t recover, as the Wolf defense ramped up the pressure.
A three-ball from Kalia Littlejohn, after a back-and-forth with teammate Kailey Kellner bought her shooting room, followed by another trey off of Elfrank’s fingertips and the Wolves were on a 16-2 tear.
Coupeville hit five three-point bombs in the first half, with Kellner’s second one set up by another superb pass from Mia Littlejohn, who was electric while running the point.
She had a season-high seven assists, but would have topped double figures if her teammates hadn’t been a bit cold with their shooting touch in the early going.
Mia Littlejohn sliced ‘n diced her way through the RedHawk defense all night, putting the ball into the hands of Tiffany Briscoe, Lindsey Roberts and Co. with panache.
When Mia wasn’t threading the needle, lil’ sis Kalia was emulating her, firing a wicked dish over the top of the crowd to a cutting Kellner for a key third-quarter bucket.
Once Coupeville stretched the lead to double digits, it held it there almost without fail.
The RedHawks cut the deficit to eight for half a second near the end of the third quarter, only to have Coupeville score on the next three plays to stretch things back out.
Along with their stingy defense, which included holding Port Townsend gunner Kaitlyn Meek to a measly 10 points, the Wolves hit the boards like wild animals.
Almost every time the ball skipped off the rim, the first thing you saw was the long, graceful arms of Roberts reaching up to the heavens to snatch the ball.
The sophomore sensation finished with a game-high 13 boards, eight of those on the offensive glass.
She had help, too, as Elfrank snatched nine caroms and Kellner made off with five. Coupeville had 35 rebounds, 20 of those coming off of their own missed shots.
CHS spread out its offense, with Elfrank and Kellner hitting for 11 apiece. Roberts (7), Mia Littlejohn (5), Briscoe (4) and Kalia Littlejohn (3) also connected.
It was the final home game for seniors Briscoe, Kellner, Lauren Grove (who pilfered four steals while harassing Meek) and manager Skyler Lawrence.
Before the game started, Wolf JV star Nicole Lester delivered a soaring rendition of the national anthem that earned a well-deserved round of applause.
JV left stranded:
For the fourth and final time this season, a league foe cancelled on the Wolf young guns, bringing their season to a close at 11-3 overall, 5-0 in conference play.
Both Port Townsend and Chimacum bailed on two of three scheduled JV games this season due to trouble keeping a full roster.
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