First the good news: The Coupeville High School girls basketball team overcame adversity and came from behind to win 29-27 at Sultan Friday, Jan. 11.

Now the bad news: The adversity — the Wolves lost their leading scorer and four-year letter winner Lindsey Roberts to a broken finger in the first quarter.

Coupeville also played the game without starter Hannah Davidson, out with an ankle injury.

The Wolves’ Scout Smith quieted the rowdy Sultan crowd by calmly sinking the winning points on a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining.

Sultan opened the game with a 5-0 run, then Coupeville’s Ema Smith drained a three-pointer for the first-quarter’s only points.

Ema Smith added 5 points, including another three-pointer, in the second period, but the Wolves still trailed 14-10 at the break.

Each team scored 7 points in the third quarter; 5 of the Wolves’ points came from free throws by Chelsea Prescott.

At one point in the third, Coupeville trailed 21-13. It cut the gap to 21-17 going into the fourth quarter.

Ema Smith led the comeback with 6 fourth-quarter points, and Scout Smith and Izzy Wells combined to go 6-for-6 at the free throw line. Coupeville was just 9-for-19 from the stripe over the first three periods.

The Wolves rallied to take a 2-point lead in the final minutes, then Sultan tied the game with 17 seconds remaining. That set up Scout Smith’s big free throws.

The junior point guard attacked the rim, drawing the foul that led to the winning points.

Sultan was unable to connect on its final contested shot.

Ema Smith finished with a double-double, 14 points and 10 rebounds. Prescott had 7 points (all from the foul line), Scout Smith 4, Avalon Renninger 2 and Wells 2.

Renninger got the start in place of Davidson and drew the defensive challenge of guarding Grace Trichler, Sultan’s top scoring threat.

With the two starters out, Coupeville received strong play from swing players Ja’Kenya Hoskins and Wells, according to coach David King. Hoskins collected three steals and five rebounds, and Wells added seven rebounds.

“We have a big week ahead of us,” King said. “The great thing about this team is they know it’s not one player who needs to fill up the stats sheet or replace everything Lindsey and Hannah give us. They all will share in picking up a little more, and we will continue to have our defense lead us.”

The Wolves (3-2, 5-7) play two home games this week: 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15, with Granite Falls (2-3, 4-10) and 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 18 with South Whidbey (0-5, 2-12).

Friday’s game is a doubleheader; the boys follow at 6:45 p.m. It is also the schools’ Coaches versus Cancer game; each school will honor a cancer victim and collect donations for cancer research.