Very few gave Coupeville a chance of making it past day two of the double-elimination 1A state tournament in Yakima last week.

Did they ever prove doubters wrong.

The Wolves not only made it past the second day, but advanced through the third round Friday and to the consolation finals on Saturday morning, before losing a close 47-40 contest to White Swan and finishing with an eighth place trophy.

“Most people figured we’d be two and out,” CHS head coach Greg Oldham said. “There were two teams everybody was talking about afterwards — Colfax, who came in 15-9 and won the whole thing, and us.”

The Wolves narrowly missed a fifth place finish, playing a tight contest against White Swan all the way to the end.

In a back-and-forth game that saw 12 lead changes and three ties, CHS trailed by two with just over a minute to go.

The Cougars, however, went up by four with 1:27 left and closed the door on a powerful post move from Sheena Strom, who had all of her six points in the final two minutes.

A swarm of ensuing turnovers and missed shots from Coupeville prevented any hopes of a comeback.

“We played really well, we just made some unforced errors there at the end,” Oldham said.

The Wolves maintained their last lead at the 3:30 mark of the fourth quarter after a layup from freshman Shawna West.

Just seconds later White Swan erased the Coupeville advantage on a three-point bucket from Shelbi Strom — her only points of the day.

The Cougars were led by Andrea Blodgett with a game-high 17 points.

Lexie Black had a team-high 14 for the Wolves and was named to the all-tournament girls team in the process — becoming the first CHS player to do so.

She credited her focused play to entering the tournament as an underdog.

‘“I really kind of used that darkhorse rating to kind of fuel my game,” Black said. “I knew we were better than that and I wanted to go out and prove it— it felt great to place.”

The 6-foot-2 senior averaged 12.5 points and nine rebounds over four games. She also had a school and tournament record 10 blocks in Friday’s contest against Zillah.

“I seriously didn’t expect that at all,” said Black, of the award given by media members. “It was outstanding.”

Others who played a strong tournament for the Wolves include West, who put in a career-high 10 points against Zillah; junior Brittany Black, who averaged 10 points a game; and senior Taniel Lamb, who averaged over eight points a game.

Coupeville ended its season with a 16-10 overall record.

Five seniors; Whitney Clark, Taniel Lamb, Heather Davis, Janiece Jenkins and Black, all played their final games Saturday.

Coupeville 9 14 7 10 — 40

White Swan 8 17 8 14 — 47

Scoring—Coupeville: L. Black 14, Lamb 8, West 7, B. Black 6, Clark 3, Davis 2. White Swan: A. Blodgett 17, Donato 11, Sheena Strom 6, Adran 4, D. Blodgett 4, Shelbi Strom 3, Lawrence 2.