The scenario at Coupeville High School’s gymnasium Friday night played out like the Gene Hackman/Barbara Hershey movie, “Hoosiers.”
The Wolf Pack was trailing by two points and clock was ticking down.
Just seven seconds remained in overtime when Coupeville senior Hayley Ebersole began bringing the ball up the court.
Ebersole made a pass to Kassie Lawson on the left side of the circle behind the three-point line and everyone expected her to drive the lane and try to draw a foul.
But no.
The junior took a quick look to her left, made a half turn and let the shot go.
Swish!
The ball dropped through the bottom of the net as the buzzer went off, a three-pointer, and Coupeville was a 33-32 winner over King’s High School.
What a finish!
Not only did Lawson’s shot give the Wolves a dramatic come-from-behind victory and lift the team’s season record to 5-3 league games and 8-6 overall, it assured Coupeville the undisputed No. 1 Class 1A seed from the Cascade League into the district playoffs at the end of the regular season.
“We really needed that game, it was great,” Lawson said. “I was not ready for that at all. It was luck, all luck, but we got it and that’s all that matters.”
Coupeville scored the first two points of the game at the 6:09 mark of the opening quarter on a Megan Smith basket, and trailed the rest of the game until Smith sank a pair of free throws with 3:30 showing on the clock in overtime.
In between, good defense and poor shooting by both teams made the contest a low-scoring affair.
“It was a fun environment tonight,” coach Blake Severns said. “You had two teams playing really hard. Defensively, both teams solid. They didn’t have an answer for our defense and we didn’t have an answer for their defense.”
King’s held a 9-2 lead after the first quarter and at one point in the second period were up 14-4, before the Wolves went on a late 6-0 run to trim the margin to 15-10 at halftime.
The Knights put just four points on the board in the third period and the Wolves managed only five, and heading into the final eight minutes of the game, King’s was still in front, 19-15.
“We just played tough defense and tough offense, and we did what we could,” sophomore Ashley Manker said.
Then came the fourth quarter dramatics and Coupeville’s offense finally heated up.
Smith scored six points on a pair of baskets and two free throws, and Manker knocked down four straight from the charity stripe. Meanwhile, the defense surrendered only six points and the score was tied 25-25 at the end of regulation play.
Smith gave the Wolves an early lead in overtime, but the Knights fought back.
Free throws by Jana Jack and Morgan Krannitz tied the score and after Manker gave Coupeville a one-point lead, Laura Friar hit a hook shot in the key to put the Knights back on top.
Jack followed with a pair of charity shots and with 30 seconds left, King’s was up 32-29.
A Manker free throw cut the lead back to two points and when the Knights turned the ball over on an errant pass, the stage was set for Lawson’s last-second heroics.
“It was a pretty good one for us tonight,” Ebersole said. “We kind of went on a losing streak, but I think this one is going to help us. I was really proud of Kassie.”
Smith scored a game-high 14 points, Manker had six points, all from the free throw line, and Lawson had five points, the final three the biggest of them all.
Jack scored 10 points for King’s.
“It just came down to who made plays,” Severns said. “It wasn’t coaching, it was just an individual making a great play.”
Knights beat Wolves, 70-45
A 17-point second half against a league-leading team isn’t going to get the job done as Coupeville found out in Friday night’s game against King’s High School.
The Knights scored 21 points in the second quarter and 31 more in the second half to soundly defeat the Wolves 70-45.
The loss drops Coupeville’s league record to 2-5 and 6-7 overall, while King’s remains undefeated in the Cascade League at 8-0 and 10-4 overall.
Alex Evans and Kramer O’Keefe scored 14 points each for the Wolves but after, that Zepher Loesch was the next highest scorer with five points.
Dylan O’Neil had a game-high 21 points for King’s and teammate Erich Fuhlendorf had 18 points.
Coupeville 33, King’s 32 OT
King’s 9 6 4 6 7 — 32
Coupeville 2 8 5 10 8 — 33
King’s (32) — Jana Jack 3 4-8 10, Alison McConaughey 2 2-3 6, Makenzie Taylor 1 2-2 5, Laura Friar 1 3-4 5, Heather Westbrook 0 0-1 0, Kelli Cutright 0 1-7 1, Morgan Krannitz 1 0-0 2, Lauren Thompson 1 1-2 3, Christina McCormick 0 0-0 0. Totals 9 13-27 32.
Coupeville (33) — Megan Smith 4 6-10 14, Ashley Manker 0 6-10 6, Kassie Lawson 2 0-0 5, Paige Mueller 1 1-3 3, Hayley Ebersole 1 2-2 4, Shawna West 0 1-3 1, Courtney Boyd 0 0-0 0, Sarah Vass 0 0-0 0, Kayla Lawson 0 0-0 0. Totals 8 16-28 33.
Three-point goals — King’s 1 (Taylor), Coupeville 1 (Kas. Lawson). Turnovers — King’s 19, Coupeville 16. Total fouls — King’s 22, Coupevile 22. Fouled out — Cutright, McConaughey.
