The Coupeville Wolves girls basketball team couldn’t have picked a better time to play their strongest basketball of the season.

“We strung our three best games of the year together against some of the top teams in the state,” head coach Greg Oldham said, referring to the Wolves’ first three state contests.

Coupeville went on to win two of their four games last weekend at the 1A state tournament at the Yakima Sun Dome, receiving eighth place overall.

The Wolves showed early in the tournament they didn’t make the trip across the snowy pass for nothing. In their first game against eventual state champion Brewster, they almost achieved an upset not many had not given them a chance of pulling off. Coupeville possessed a five point, 29-24 lead at halftime, only to struggle in the third quarter and go on to lose their opening game 52-44.

“We had two bad quarters in the whole tournament,” Oldham said.

One of those came in the third quarter against Brewster, where they scored only three points and the other in their final game against Archbishop Murphy where they scored two.

Despite their first round loss to Brewster, the Wolves were pleased with their effort, which resulted in a high level of confidence over their next two games.

“We were all pleased that we had played that well,” Oldham said. “We were very confident those next two days.”

Behind the 18 points and four three-pointers of senior Brianne King, the Wolves put away their next opponent, Winlock, 53-44.

Coupeville continued rolling in their ensuing game against River View, who they beat 39-26. A solid defense held River View to an ice-cold 25-percent shooting for the game.

Their third-round win over River View set up a battle for fifth place with Northwest 1A rivals Archbishop Murphy. The Wolves, who lost the first two meetings of the season, came out swinging against the Wildcats. After one quarter the game was tied 10-10, and Coupeville was only down four, 23-19 at the half.

Fatigue and the combination of sisters Lisa and Lauren Coate were too much for the Wolves to handle in the second half as they went on to lose their final game of the season, 46-36. The duo scored 19 and 12 points respectively. Senior Carly Guillory ended her Coupeville basketball career with a team-high 10 points and 10 rebounds.

King finished the state tournament the leading scorer for the Wolves with 52 total points, averaging 13 a game. She surpassed the 1,500 career point mark on a three-pointer in the opening game against Brewster. King ended her four-year career wracking up an astounding school record of 1,548 career points.

Seniors Amy Mouw, Erica Lamb and Guillory all finished the four-game tournament averaging over seven points apiece.

Despite the disappointment of losing their final game of the year, Oldham is happy with the way the season went.

“We had an amazing run all season long and an amazing run at the tournament,” he said. “They believed in their ability and achieved a lot of really great things.”

For those who doubted their ability to be successful at the beginning of the season, the Wolves easily proved them wrong by placing at the state tournament for the second year in a row.

“A lot of people expected us not to perform this well because of the seniors we graduated last year,” Oldham said. “It was great to see the kids step up this year.”