No matter how well a basketball game is played, someone has to lose. Unfortunately for local fans, that was Coupeville’s boys team in a 50-41 loss at King’s Friday night.

The win solidified the Knights’ (9-1, 12-4) hold on first place in the Cascade Conference. Had the Wolves (7-3, 12-4) won, they would have moved into a tie for first with King’s.

The Wolves defeated King’s 65-64 Jan. 9 in Coupeville for the Knights’ only league loss.

Coupeville now meets the opposite end of the conference standings when it hosts winless Granite Falls (0-9, 0-15) Tuesday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m.

Coupeville coach Randy King called Friday night’s contest a “really good game, an excellent game. Both teams played great.”

He noted that there were few mistakes in the game (Coupeville had 11 turnovers and King’s eight), and the low score was because of the defense effort by both teams, not missed shooting opportunities.

King said, “The played great defense; heck, both teams played great defense.”

The Wolves, according to King, played well throughout the contest, but played “extremely well” in the first half when his team built a 23-19 lead.

Led by Ryan Hoff’s 10 points in the third quarter, the Knights outscored Coupeville 17-11 in the period to go on top 36-32. The game remained tight until the final moments. King’s hit six of eight free throws in the last minute to cement the win.

Coach King praised his team’s effort, but pointed out two areas that hampered the Wolves.

One, Coupeville missed five of six free throws in the final 2:30.

Two, while the Knights did an excellent job smothering Coupeville post Hunter Hammer down low, King said his club failed to get the ball to him when they had the opportunities, especially early in the game.

Jason Bagby had his second-straight strong game for the Wolves. He scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. King said those stats were more remarkable because of the energy Bagby spent at the defensive end trying to slow down Hoff as the Knights ran him off numerous screens.

Hammer scored just four points, but pulled seven rebounds and defended the paint with nine blocks.

Chad Brookhouse scored six points, Ian Smith five and Erik King two. JD Wilcox, one of Coupeville’s top scorers, missed a chunk of the game because of foul trouble and scored only two points.

The Wolves held the Knights’ leading scorer, Daniel Cheledinas to seven points, 10 below his average. Cheledinas scored 24 in the teams’ first meeting this year.

Hoff finished with 21, including four 3-pointers, Friday.