“We played hard, gritty and in control!!”

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“We played hard, gritty and in control!!”

January 5, 2014 by David Svien

DeAndre Mitchell, locked and loaded. (John Fisken photo)

It was a very good day to be a Wolf.

With Orcas Island in town Saturday for the makeup of games that were snowed out right before the start of winter break, all three Coupeville High School basketball teams to take the court (Orcas doesn’t have a girls JV team) came away with big wins.

And, while they played in the side gym, the Wolf boys’ JV squad put on maybe the most impressive display of the day, thoroughly thumping the visiting Vikings 62-14.

With coach Dustin Van Velkinburgh out of town visiting a sick relative, hoops guru Ryan O’Keefe slid into the lead chair and let things fly.

“I was very pleased from top to bottom on how our kids played,” O’Keefe said. “We played hard, gritty and in control. Everyone played, and we took care of business.”

Jared Helmstadter and Gabe Wynn, who both saw action later in Coupeville’s varsity win, led the way offensively.

Helmstadter threw down a career-high 15, while his running mate popped for 14.

Hot on their heels was DeAndre Mitchell, who tickled the twine for 10, while Clay Reilly notched six.

Recent transfer CJ Smith tossed in five, Isaac Vargas banged home four, Dante Mitchell and Brian Shank hit for three apiece and Darius Maxie banked home a bucket.