The visiting Klahowya boys basketball team put a damper on Coupeville’s Senior Night, nipping the Wolves 44-43 in the regular-season finale Monday, Feb. 9.

Coupeville (3-6, 7-12) now moves on to the district tournament.

The Wolves will play at Cascade Christian in Puyallup at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, in a loser-out game. If the Wolves win, they will play Chimacum at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17, at Sumner High School.

Coupeville entered the fourth quarter against Klahowya down by five points, 38-33.

The Wolves started the final period on an 8-0 run. First, Wiley Hesselgrave scored three straight hoops, the final two on coast-to-coast drives. Joel Walstad finished the string to give Coupeville a 41-38 lead.

A pair of Eagle free throws broke a Klahowya scoring drought that lasted nearly seven minutes. That was followed by a three-pointer from Eagle Payton Ryen, giving Klahowya a 43-41 lead with 1:26 left.

After both teams failed to convert, Coupeville’s Aaron Trumbull grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled on the put-back. The senior knocked down the free throws to knot the game at 43 with 13.8 seconds remaining.

The Wolves had a foul to give and were to use it, coach Anthony Smith said, to disrupt Klahowya’s next possession. The Wolves, however, were overzealous and committed an intentional foul.

Klahowya made one of the two free throws, which turned out to be the winning point.

The Eagles then received the ball out of bounds, and Coupeville fouled right away. Klahowya missed the foul shot but snagged the offensive rebound, forcing Coupeville to foul again.

This time on the Eagle miss, Coupeville rebounded, raced the ball to half court and called time out with three seconds left.

Hesselgrave missed a long shot at the buzzer, and the Eagles escaped with the win.

Klahowya (6-3, 7-12) was the only Olympic League opponent the Wolves failed to defeat this season.

“We wanted to beat them bad,” Smith said. “We battled but just came up one point short. I’m proud of the kids. It’s a testament to them that they didn’t fold when they fell behind.”

Klahowya started quickly and led in the first quarter until Walstad’s three-point play six minutes in. The Wolves led 14-12 at the quarter as Walstad finished the period with five points and Trumbull four.

Coupeville could have had a bigger lead but missed several put-backs that rimmed out.

The lead flip-flopped in the second period, and the Eagles led 27-24 at halftime even though Aaron Curtin scored six points for Coupeville.

It took the Wolves nearly five minutes to score in the second half, falling behind 34-24. They finished the quarter on a 9-4 run with hoops by Trumbull, Walstad and Matt Shank and free throws from Hesselgrave and Ryan Griggs.

Hesselgrave finished the game with 13 points, Walstad nine, Trumbull eight, Curtin six, Shank four and Griggs three.

The contest was the final home game for seniors Walstad, Trumbull, Curtin, Shank and Isaac Vargas.