After a fourth-quarter rally fell short in a 52-48 loss to Charles Wright Academy Wednesday, Feb. 17, in Sumner, the Coupeville High School girls basketball team will need to win Friday to keep from falling out of the playoffs.

The Wolves (15-5) continue West Central District 3 1A play when they face Seattle Christian (10-7) at 7:45 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19, at Sumner High School in a loser-out, winner-to-regional game.

Seattle Christian lost to Bellevue Christian 54-44 Wednesday. Bellevue Christian and Charles Wright meet for the district title Saturday.

The difference in Coupeville’s loss to CWA came at the foul line, where the Tarriers outscored the Wolves 13-0.

The Wolves committed only four more fouls than the Tarriers, 14-10, but Charles Wright shot 22 free throws to only one for the Wolves. Two Tarriers combined to shoot all 22 foul shots.

Coupeville coach David King noted the discrepancy in foul shots but said there were other reasons for the loss.

The Wolves, he said, were being out hustled, giving up offensive rebounds, allowing the Tarriers to attack the rim off the dribble and not adjusting to the physical play.

“Charles Wright was the aggressor and outplayed us for three quarters,” King said.

After snagging 16 offensive rebounds in the first half, the Tarriers continued the trend after the break and scored 10 second-chance points in the third quarter.

Then in the fourth period, Charles Wright grabbed an important offensive rebound late in the game, forcing Coupeville to foul to stop the clock. When the Tarrier missed the free throw, CWA again came up with a key offensive board.

Coupeville’s half-court defensive had trouble keeping the Tarriers away from the rim.

“We worked on and talked about stopping the dribble drive for a week,” King said. “We just couldn’t do it. Midway through the third we had to go into a 2-3 zone.”

The officials let the kids play, and it resulted in “the most physical game we played all season,” King said. “We weren’t used to it and Charles Wright was.”

The brightest highlight for Coupeville was its play in the fourth quarter.

Down 13, 47-34, heading into the final period, the Wolves rallied to within two twice in the final minute. A contested miss inside and a turnover prevented Coupeville from completing the comeback.

Individually, King said, “Kailey (Kellner) knocked down some huge threes for us, Mia (Littlejohn) got her shot to fall in the second half that kept us close in the third, (and) Makana (Stone) played tough all night inside on offense.”

Coupeville started the game up 5-0 on a bucket by Stone and a three-ball by Kellner.

Stone finished the quarter with eight points and Kellner had five and the Wolves led 13-11.

Again, Stone (six points) and Kellner (three) did all the scoring for Coupeville in the second quarter but it wasn’t enough as the Tarriers exploded for 15 and led 26-22 at halftime.

Charles Wright piled up 21 points in the third quarter, and Littlejohn tried to keep Coupeville within striking distance by scoring eight.

With five different Wolves scoring, Coupeville stormed back in the fourth quarter but ran out of time.

All five of the Tarriers’ fourth-quarter points came from the foul line.

Stone led Coupeville with 20 points, 15 rebounds and six blocks. Kellner had 13 points and four assists, and Littlejohn finished with 11 points and six assists.

Lauren Grove and Lindsey Roberts each scored two points. Roberts’ hoop resulted in the only bench points in the game for either team.

All five of Charles Wright’s starters scored at least seven points, led by Majestic Moler with 16.