Forget the 11 straight losses and all the “close ones” that slipped away because of one poorly-played quarter.

Forget that it’s been more than a month since the last time the Coupeville boys basketball team tasted victory.

On Saturday night, all the hard work in practice and the Wolves’ never-surrender attitude paid off with an 80-74 victory over Cedarcrest

To make things even sweeter, it was also Coupeville’s first Cascade League victory of the season.

“We needed this one,” coach

Randy King said. “We’ve led in every game and just can’t quite pull it out.”

The Wolves took a 13-9 lead before the Red Wolves rallied to hold a 20-16 advantage after the first quarter of play.

Coupeville went on a 4-0 run to open the second period and tie the score, and the lead changed hands several times.

At one point the Wolves led 29-23, but once again Cedarcrest came back to go up 37-33 at halftime.

Unlike previous games, Coupeville didn’t fall apart in the third quarter.

Junior Brian Miller scored 12 of his game-high 28 points in the third quarter as the Wolves built a 51-48 lead heading into the final eight minutes of action.

“We all played a good game tonight,” Miller said. “We talked at halftime and we knew we had to do something because we’ve been coming out flat in the third quarter. This time we just came

out and we wanted it.”

Miller also had 15 rebounds and three blocked shots in the game.

In the final period, it was raining three-point baskets at both ends of the court.

Alex Evans buried a pair of treys for Coupeville and teammates James Smith and Kramer O’Keefe had once each, but the Red Wolves got three-point goals from Jake LeLand and Cullen Hammontree to keep the score close.

“Tonight we hit some big shots and we had some guys step up and hit some shots they haven’t been hitting before,” King said.

In the end, it came down to free throw shooting and Coupeville was 11 of 15 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.

O’Keefe was a perfect four of four and James Smith hit three of four.

“Those free throws were excellent tonight,” O’Keefe said. “We all shot a lot better from the line and it was nice to finally get a win. We’ve had some tough luck, but we’ve been playing better lately and hopefully we can go to the playoffs on a run.”

O’Keefe finished the game with 12 points.

Smith scored 13 points, had 13 assists and eight rebounds, and Evans was the fourth player in double figures for the Wolves with 10 points.

Cullen Hammontree scored 21 points for Cedarcrest and Matt Coltom had 17.

“They’ve had some bad luck too, but they played really hard against us tonight,” King said. “I was happy that we were able to get the win. We needed something going into the playoffs. We’ve been playing well and this should lift our spirits. We play in a 2A league, but we’ll be going down and playing some 1A teams in the playoffs and we are looking to have some success.”

Coupeville hosts Lynden Christian at 7 p.m. Feb. 14 in the opening round of the 1A playoffs. Coupeville 80, Cedarcrest 74

Cedarcrest 20 17 11 26 — 74

Coupeville 16 17 18 29 — 80

Cedarcrest (74) — Hammontree 9 2-3 21, Coltom 5 5-5 17, LeLand 4 3-3 14, Pardon 5 1-2 11, LeBate 3 1-2 9, Fromm 1 0-0 2, Gall 0 0-0 0, Cook 0 0-0 0. Totals 27 12-15 74.

Coupeville (80) — Miller 12 4-5 28, Smith 3 5-6 13, O’Keefe 3 4-4 12, Evans 4 0-0 10, Tucker 0 1-3 1, Farmer 1 3-4 5, Larson 4 1-2 9, Emerson 1 0-1 2, Loesch 0 0-0 0. Totals 28 18-23 80.

Three-point goals — Cedarcrest 8 (Leland 3, Coltom 2, LeBate 2, Hammontree); Coupeville 6 (Smith 2, O’Keefe 2, Evans 2).