Coupeville Sports

Sweet redemption. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

Gavin O’Keefe eyes a potential rebound.

Former Wolf softball ace Alexis Trumbull and her young sidekick enjoy the game.

Last year was The Punch. This year, it was all about The Knockout.

Less than 24 hours after coming agonizingly close to upending La Conner, the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad claimed its first home win in three seasons Saturday, and it wasn’t even close.

Even playing without top scorer Nick Streubel, who was committed to a football camp, the Wolves thoroughly erased every bad memory from last season’s match-up with Orcas Island, throttling the visiting Vikings 84-37.

A bit of revenge for one of last year’s most dubious moments — a game where an Orcas player threw a punch at Aaron Trumbull two feet in front of a ref and was not ejected — the win lifted Coupeville to 1-6.

It also snapped a recent string of close games where the Wolves fought hard but exited with only moral victories.

This time, it was over early, as Coupeville poured it on and never let up, jumping out to a 27-7 lead and eventually pushing the margin to nearly 50 by the final buzzer.

Anthony Bergeron swooped and dove for a game-high 19 points to pace five Wolves in double figures. Trumbull banged home 16, Wiley Hesselgrave popped for 14, Gavin O’Keefe swished 13 and Morgan Payne banked in 11.

It was only the second game back for O’Keefe, who had not played since 2012 after two broken legs.

Joel Walstad (5) and Matt Shank (4) rounded out the Coupeville scoring list.

The victory was the first at home for the Wolves since the 2010-2011 season, and their second overall in the last 2+ seasons. Coupeville beat Mount Vernon Christian on the road last year, and the Hurricanes will come to town next Saturday for a rematch.