Hunter Smith provided the tuneup the sputtering Coupeville High School boys basketball team needed by drilling a three-pointer at the buzzer to help the Wolves win 54-53 at Klahowya Friday, Feb. 5.

Coupeville, which suffer four lopsided losses in its previous five games, finished the regular season with a win and a much needed pick-me-up heading into the postseason.

“It was a huge win for us,” coach Anthony Smith said. “It is very important for us going into the playoffs believing we can win. It was nice to see the kids playing for each other, rooting for each other.”

The Wolves (4-5, 9-1), third place in the Olympic League, host Bellevue Christian (2-5, 7-10), the fourth place team from the Nisqually League, in a loser-out district play-in game at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11.

That winner will play at the No. 2 team from the Nisqually League, either Vashon Island (6-1, 15-4) or Cascade Christian (6-2, 9-8), at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13, in another loser-out game.

Coupeville defeated Bellevue Christian 53-50 in a nonleague game Dec. 5.

For the second time in less than two weeks, Coupeville had to come from behind to top Klahowya.

The Wolves scored the game’s final eight points in a 64-60 win Jan. 29.

This time around, the game was close throughout.

Coach Smith altered his starting lineup for the game, and it “created a hunger” among the players, he said.

The teams were tied a 7 after the first quarter, with the Wolves getting a three-ball from J.J. Johnson and four points from Gabe Wynn.

Six different players scored for Coupeville in the second quarter, Johnson added another trey, and the Wolves led 19-17 at the break.

Smith hit two long balls in the third period, but the Eagles (0-9, 1-19) were able to knot the match at 32 heading into the final quarter.

Klahowya scored with less than a minute left to go ahead 52-51. The Wolves had a chance to tie or take the lead with a one-and-one opportunity with five seconds left, but missed the front end.

That was the last miss of many for the Wolves who made only 11 of 30 free throws in the game; Klahowya was 13-for-20.

After the miss, Coupeville fouled to stop the clock. Klahowya made one free throw to make it 53-51 with 2.9 second left.

Risen Johnson took the inbounds pass and zipped the ball to Smith, who knocked down the game-winner as the horn sounded.

The three-pointer was one of four in the game for Smith, who led the team with 16 points, all in the second half and 10 in the fourth quarter.

J.J. Johnson and Wynn each finished with nine points, Jordan Ford had seven, Wiley Hesselgrave five, Risen Johnson five, Dante Mitchell two and Desmond Bell one.

Risen Johnson and Ford also collected nine rebounds each.

Payton Ryen led Klahowya with 20 points, 17 coming after halftime.