The first half was hard to watch, but the second half was a thing of beauty.
Something changed after halftime for the Coupeville Middle School 8th grade varsity boys’ basketball team Monday. Because after 14 minutes of being unable to put the ball in the bucket from any angle, suddenly the Wolves were raining down shots from everywhere.
With Gabe Wynn pouring in 13 of his game-high 17 points in the second half, Coupeville used a 22-2 run to break visiting Sultan’s spirit en route to a convincing 30-21 win. Coming on the heels of a 12-3 win in the 8th grade JV game, it made for a beautiful afternoon and early evening for coach Bob Martin.
“Great to get a win! Great for the kids!,” Martin said.
Trailing 9-4 as they came out of the locker room, the Wolves suddenly seemed to relax and shots that had been rimming out every way possible suddenly started dropping. Wynn drove hard to the hoop on back-to-back scoring plays to open the half, then fed Clay Reilly on a full-court pass that led to a breakaway lay-in.
Just to drive the point home, Uriel “Woody” Liquidano drained a long-range three-point bomb and Coupeville had the fans banging on the bleachers, while the previously noisy Sultan players in the other half of the stands just sat glumly.
After giving up a bucket at the end of the third quarter, the Wolves immediately jumped right back on the Turks, scoring the first seven points of the fourth quarter. Wynn pumped in five and hooked up with Mitchell Carroll for the other bucket, while a defense spurred by a hustling, ball-hawking Grey Rische clamped down on anything and everything in the paint.
Sultan made one final rally, cutting a 15 point gap down to seven, but Reilly, who had six points in the game, sealed things with two picture-perfect free throws.
In the JV game, Coupeville jumped out to a 9-0 lead, with Ethan Spark hitting for five, including a long-range trey, and never looked back. Liquidano added four, Nick Crownover had a bucket and Blake Gallahar banked in a free throw.
Things weren’t as pretty for the Wolf 7th grade squads, which both fell to Sultan. The varsity, missing spark-plug Luke Merriman — out with a broken hand — fell 46-20, while the JV lost a squeaker, 13-11.
The 7th grade varsity was led by the one-two combo of Ethan Loy (nine points) and Paul Gallahar (eight). Cameron Toomey Stout had two and Hunter Downes tickled the twines for a free throw.
The JV squad fought until the final shot, but a desperation heave at the buzzer fell short. Spark paced Coupeville with eight points, while Nick Etzell had two and Jake Hoagland one.
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