It was quite a night for Jason Bagby.
The 6-3 senior forward had a fast start, big middle and explosive finish as he and his Coupeville teammates defeated host South Whidbey 58-54 Tuesday night.
Now the Wolves have their sights on King’s and take aim at the top of the Cascade Conference. Second-place Coupeville (7-2, 12-3) heads to first-place King’s (7-1, 10-4) Friday for a 5:15 p.m. game. The Wolves defeated King’s earlier this season for the Knights’ only league loss.
Coupeville coach Randy King said, “Jason had a monster game” against South Whidbey.
Bagby scored the contest’s first seven points as the Wolves jumped out to a quick lead.
He finished off the game with a two-handed jam that put an exclamation point on the Wolves’ win over the Whidbey Island rival Falcons. In between the initial buckets and his dunk, he added 19 other points to finish the game with 28 points, nine rebounds, two blocked shots and three assists.
King said, “He as all over the place.”
Bagby, obviously, didn’t do it all alone. Hunter Hammer chipped in with 11 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks while playing in foul trouble much the night.
JD Wilcox, who King said picked up four fouls early, contributed eight points. Ian Smith had five, Chad Brookhouse three, Tim Walstad two and Erik King one.
When it was pointed out that the Wolves held South Whidbey’s Riley Newman, the league’s leading scorer, to just 11 points, half of his season average, coach King said, “How about that!”
Smith had the early assignment on Newman, and King added that others helped as they guarded him “by committee.”
In the third period, not only did the Wolves shut down Newman, but they put the brakes on the entire Falcon team by going to a zone which limited South Whidbey to just three points in the period.
Coupeville jumped to a 21-10 lead and “were cruising,” according to King. South Whidbey wasn’t about to cave, King said. He added, “They have a lot of pride and play hard.” That effort got them back into the game, and they trailed by just three, 30-27, at half time.
Next came the shut-down quarter for Coupeville and they outscored the home team 15-3 in the third period to go up 45-30. Again, the hard-working Falcons got back into the game.
South Whidbey went on a 22-9 run to trim the margin to 54-52 in the final minute.
Bagby connected on two big free throws, but the Falcons quickly answered to make it 56-54.
With five seconds left, Erik King threw over the top of the Falcon press to Bagby, who out jumped and out wrestled the Falcon defender for the ball, took a few dribbles and stuffed it home to emphatically seal the victory.
