MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Given the start Coupeville had in its third/fourth place tri-district game with Overlake Saturday morning, there was relief to just have a chance in the end.

“We just didn’t seem ready when we walked in the gym,” CHS head coach Geoff Kappes said.

A 4:30 a.m. wake up call followed by a two-and-a-half hour commute resulted in a sluggish start and a 19-6 first-quarter deficit.

Despite their early woes, the Wolves never folded.

“Being down 13 there’s two ways you can go,” Kappes said. “You can give up or you can fight back like we did.”

Down three, 51-48, with 5.8 seconds left, Coupeville had an opportunity to tie for the first time. A perfectly drawn up play and an open three-point look from senior Brittany Black, however, missed just right from the top of the arc.

“She got the look that we wanted,” Kappes said. “She makes it fairly consistently so we knew we would have a chance.

The girls put their heart and souls into it, sometimes the ball just doesn’t fall.”

Coupeville got in its first-quarter rut as the result of seven turnovers and 2-for-11 shooting from the field. Overlake, on the other hand, was hot early. Behind sisters Hillary and Lexi Barker, the Redmond-based Owls hit 50 percent of their shots from the floor, including two three pointers. The sisters combined for all 19 first-quarter points. The Owls also had 12 offensive rebounds in the first half.

“We usually only give up 12 in a game,” Kappes said.

After its early slump, CHS started to wake up. The Wolves found their post players and cut the lead to 25-18 at halftime.

Behind continued hot shooting, the Owls managed to bump their lead back up at the start of the fourth quarter, 46-34.

The Wolves, however, had something left in the tank. Led by scores from five different players, CHS went on a 12-2 run in a five minute span to close the deficit to 48-46 with 1:27 to go. Coupeville got the deficit down to two points once more with 24 seconds left, but a Lexi Barker free throw bumped the lead back up to three.

“We did what we needed to do after that first quarter,” Kappes said. “The clock just ran out on us.”

Senior Jennifer Bailey led CHS with 16 points — 12 of those came in the second half. Senior Beth Mouw added 11 and sophomore Shawna West had 10.

Lexi Barker led Overlake with 20 points, while Hillary Barker added 13.

The Wolves, the Northwest A champions, ended the tri-district tournament in fourth place with two losses. The top six teams advanced to this week’s state tournament in Yakima.

Overlake 19 6 19 7 — 51

Coupeville 6 12 16 14 — 48

Scoring: Coupeville – Bailey 16, Mouw 11, West 10, Black 5, Ebersole 4, Burgoyne 2. Overlake – L. Barker 20, H. Barker 13, Peters 9, Campbell 4, Phillips 3, MacKenzie 2.