Coupeville Sports

    Did Joel Walstad (center) alert CJ Roberts (left) and Wiley Hesselgrave (right) that he had a Superman jersey on under his warmups? (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Erase the first half and it was beautiful.

With Joel Walstad going crazy from the field in the second half Friday — scoring all 14 of his points — the Coupeville High School JV boys’ basketball squad was on fire. Unfortunately, the sizzling finale wasn’t enough to erase the horror of an ice-cold opening.

Bothered by one-sided refereeing and a hail of ensuing Granite Falls free throws, the Wolves fell behind by 20 before the first quarter was over, and were never able to fully recover, eventually falling 65-44 to the visiting Tigers.

Trailing by 24 at the half, either coach Dustin Vanvelkinburgh made an impassioned speech or Walstad simply decided it was time to bust out the Superman jersey.

Raining down nine points in the third, he hit on a bit of everything — a three-pointer, a second shot just a step inside the three-point line, a turn-around jumper and a dipsy-do move in the paint where he juked a defender out of his high tops.

Teammate Anthony Bergeron took over on the defensive side as well, using his long reach to swat away three Granite Falls shots in the quarter.

The fourth quarter was actually Coupeville’s best, as it rolled up 18 points with a little help from just about everyone. Dalton Martin nailed a trey, Oscar Liquidano recovered a loose ball and turned it into a bucket and Bergeron drained a jumper over a defender’s finger tips.

Capping it all off was the ever-present Walstad, who tossed in another five and made a mad dash from half-court to outrun two Tigers and recover the ball after he knocked it free.

The steal and recovery, coming with his team down by 24, gave further proof that, like older brother Tim and older sister Bessie, there is no quit in the youngest Walstad.

Bergeron tossed in eight to back Walstad up, while Martin and Morgan Payne each knocked down six. Josiah Campbell pumped in four and Liquidano, Jared Helmstadter and Wiley Hesselgrave each had a bucket.