LANGLEY ­— The beast was unleashed.

South Whidbey beat Cascade Conference rival Lakewood High School 64-50 at Erikson Gym earlier this week.

Falcons head coach Henry Pope said earlier there would be games he would “unleash the beast” — that is, letting loose reigning conference MVP Riley Newman.

But the senior starter found his own way out of the cage.

“The beast kind of unleashed himself,” Pope said.

On Tuesday night, Newman mauled the Cougars’ defense for 29 points and 10 rebounds. He made 8-of-9 free throws, including four in the last four minutes of the game to help seal the victory.

“The main focus for me was to get to the cup,” Newman said. “The last couple games [shots] haven’t been falling, so I needed to get to the rim and get some confidence back in me.”

Lakewood showed zone, full-court pressure and man-to-man defenses, but couldn’t contain Newman.

Cougars head coach Matt Hart said his team didn’t have a plan to stop Newman, and was instead focused on “just playing basketball.”

The posts struggled against the physical Lakewood team. Forwards Tyler “Chuck” Norris and Zach Comfort controlled the key three days prior against Friday Harbor. The Cougars, however, presented a different challenge with their size and physicality. Lakewood put South Whidbey in the free throw bonus 15 seconds into the second quarter. Both teams finished the game in the free throw double bonus with at least 10 fouls apiece.

“It was a rough game,” Norris said. He finished with four points and eight rebounds.

“We have great shooters, so if it’s not there, our game plan is to kick it out, kick it out, kick it out,” Norris added.

Lakewood led 15-14 early in the second quarter after Cougar senior forward Dillon Knott hit a turnaround jumper for two points. It was the second and last time Lakewood had the lead.

South Whidbey senior point guard TJ Russell stole the ball, sprinted past the half-court line, crossed right, then back to his left and slowed down as defender Tre Haslom knocked him over for a foul. Russell made both free throws, and South Whidbey led the rest of the game.

It was the kind of night where the ball bounced South Whidbey’s way, even if the foul calls didn’t.

In the third quarter South Whidbey led 42-28 when Newman launched a three-pointer from the corner that hit the side of the backboard. Newman closed in for the rebound as it bounced right to his hands.

He dribbled toward the hoop and went under-and-up for an acrobatic layup and a 44-28 lead.

The Cougars roared back into the game with help from some South Whidbey turnovers and fouls to end the third quarter. Lakewood forward Dustin Stanton made two free throws on a technical foul charged to South Whidbey. Haslom made two free throws on the foul called before the technical was charged, and that brought the score to 44-37.

Comfort interrupted Lakewood’s eight-point run with a spin move along the baseline that netted two. Haslom made a layup and junior guard Caleb Graves stripped the ball from Newman and made a layup.

Then Russell made an assist to a driving Sam Lee, who made a layup that spun high off the glass to put South Whidbey ahead 48-41.

Mental mistakes kept the game closer than need be near the finish. South Whidbey’s bench was charged a technical foul for having six players on the court to open the fourth quarter, and Lakewood senior co-captain Haslom made 1-of-2 free throws to bring the Cougars within six points.

“I think we kind of pressed the issue a little bit too much,” Pope said. “Against Lakewood, they played a slower team. They were chomping at the bit just to unleash, but we did a little bit too much unleashing.”

The Falcons committed 19 turnovers in the game.

Pope let his team play through and find its way on the court without calling a timeout. They responded exactly the way he wanted them to by playing controlled but aggressive defense.

On Lakewood’s next offensive series, Haslom was called for a charge on Russell and his fourth foul.

“A lot of people call me the soccer player of the basketball team because I like to flop a lot, I guess,” Russell said. “It gets [the opponents] in foul trouble.”

Russell facilitated offense through his feisty defense.

After another Falcon turnover, Russell stole a pass and found junior Comfort inside for two points. Russell, a senior point guard, then connected on four straight free throws to put South Whidbey on top with a 14-point lead and the win. He had 15 points on 13-of-14 free throw shooting, four assists and five steals.

For the second consecutive game, South Whidbey’s defense was key to creating its offense and getting the win. Pope assigned Russell to defend Lakewood’s highest scorer in Haslom, who averaged 20 points coming into South Whidbey.

Haslom fouled out with 13 points and two minutes remaining in the game.

“They put pressure on the ball,” Pope said. “They played great defense.”

Lakewood’s coach acknowledged his team’s struggle against South Whidbey’s defense.

“We had trouble getting the ball inside and had a lot of turnovers,” Hart said.

South Whidbey’s 14-point victory felt much smaller to the Falcons.

“It felt like it was two points,” Newman said. “It was close the whole game. We played good defense. We held them to 50 points, and if we keep doing that, we’ll get a lot of [wins].”

South Whidbey concluded its four-game home stand with Granite Falls on Friday.

Granite Falls was looking for its first win of the season against the Falcons. The Tigers are 0-3 and lost by double digits in each game.