LANGLEY — Though the old saying has it that revenge is a dish best served cold, the Falcon girls were totally hot Friday, defeating Lakewood 70-44 in their final game.

They did it with fire and style and, truth be told, they did it for senior team captains Lindsey Newman and Samantha Pope.

The girls wanted to avenge the 54-52 loss on Jan. 30 when Lakewood forced a South Whidbey turnover and converted on Cougar Jillian Shafer’s jump shot with five seconds remaining, breaking a tie and giving Lakewood the win.

Friday, it wasn’t quite that close.

Pope scored first and it was clear the girls were ready to rock, quickly moving to an 11-4 lead after just two minutes.

One sign of the night was a smoothly worked play where Pope picked up the rebound, Newman took it down on a fast break and Reilly O’Sullivan scored. Oh, were it always that easy.

Things tightened after Lakewood’s Anna Work hit a three-pointer and started to actively pursue Newman on defense.

South Whidbey led 18-14 at the first quarter.

But the Cougar girls, Work excepted, couldn’t galvanize a coherent offense. They were feisty but had trouble making shots, were slow to take advantage when the ball came their way and generally seemed weak on both sides of the court.

The result? The Falcons were ahead 38-20 at halftime.

The final two quarters belonged to Newman as she ramped up her ferocious style of smash-and-grab basketball; most of her 40 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and four steals came in the second half of the third and fourth periods.

But she had help from her supporting cast of Pope, O’Sullivan, Ashlinn Prosch, Taylor Pope, Cayla Calderwood and Mackenzie Peterson.

South Whidbey led 54-32 at the final break.

Then Newman entered a special zone all her own; fighting opponents, stealing the ball, crashing to the court on rebounds and generally taking her game to a different place as the team ended the night 70-44.

“We tried to get in Lindsey’s face and weren’t very effective,” said Cougar coach Chris Walster. “She really rose to the senior night occasion while their other girls stepped up their play to a higher level. I’m sure that makes Coach Pope confident about next year.”

Newman confessed she wanted to go all out for her final game.

“I have no regrets for playing my heart out,” she said. “My first game as a freshman was a win and I wanted closure.”

Newman ended the season with 576 points for a per- game average of 28.8, the highest in the state.

“I knew their strategy was to stop me,” she said. “We were nervous the first time and let it slip through our fingers. That hurt us eventually in the standings, I suppose.”

The girls were 7-7 in league play and 9-10 overall, a game short of making district playoffs.

Calderwood noted it was Lindsey’s game all the way.

“’Go get ‘em, girl’ was our attitude,” she said. “It was a little emotional out there; the coach gave game balls to Lindsey and Samantha. We were glad to win and sad to see them end their careers on the court, sort of a two-headed coin.”

Falcon coach Henry Pope was pleased with the team’s performance, especially as the game didn’t count in terms of playoff hopes.

“Overall, this was the best game of the year with season-high numbers for points, rebounds and assists,” Pope said. “Again, Lindsey led the way with excellent defense by O’Sullivan keeping Anna Work in check. Good game also by Ashlinn Prosch, who had a season-high eight points and was great controlling the basketball on offense. Cayla provided great post defense and completely shut down any inside threats.”

Newman finished with 40 points, Prosch had eight points and four rebounds, Alannah Alber and Calderwood had five points each plus eight rebounds and Peterson and Samantha Pope picked up four and a total of 10 rebounds.

“We said goodbye to our two seniors before the game, Lindsey Newman and Samantha Pope,” the coach added. “Both have been great participants during their four years of Falcon basketball and made a good reflection on our school.”