Coupeville Sports

Ryan Griggs, workin’ hard in the paint. (John Fisken photos)

Aaron Curtin flies up the court, on his way to scoring two of his team-high 13.

Continuing a disturbing trend from recent seasons, the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad stumbled, badly, in the third quarter Saturday and it cost them dearly.

Outscored 21-7 in the first eight minutes after the break, the Wolves saw a close game slip out of their grasp and suffered an 80-50 beating at the hands of non-conference foe Bellevue Christian.

The loss, coming less than 24 hours after a fired-up CHS squad ran Darrington off the same floor for four quarters, dropped the Wolves to 1-3.

Coupeville travels to Mount Baker Monday for another non-conference tilt, before playing its first game in the new 1A Olympic League Friday, Dec. 12, when Klahowya comes to Whidbey.

As in all their losses this season, the Wolves came out strongly. Getting fired-up to tip-off is not a problem for CHS.

Aaron Curtin led the way, pouring in seven in the first quarter with a variety of moves.

Coupeville led in the early going, then, after briefly hitting a rough patch, rebounded sharply on a three-point bomb from Wiley Hesselgrave and a bucket off a nice inside cut by Ryan Griggs.

Bellevue, which was much, much quicker than their hosts, tried to break the game open, but the Wolves refused to fold in the first half.

The highlight was a 6-2 run in which Curtin ripped a rebound free, then forcibly bull-rushed his way through three defenders for a put-back.

The third quarter started OK, for half a second, with Joel Walstad netting a free throw and Hesselgrave slicing inside for a bucket.

But then things fell apart completely and the refs decided to stretch the game out with an endless series of ticky-tacky foul calls.

As the two teams plodded through a fourth quarter that took an eternity with a never-ending parade to the free throw line, even the hardiest of fans began to curse the never-comfortable bleachers.

The oblivious refs, having just discovered that those shiny whistles clamped between their teeth made a pleasing (to them) noise when tooted, had little mercy.

In the end, Hesselgrave (before fouling out thanks to some seriously silly foul calls by the overly-sensitive refs) and Curtin paced the Wolves with 13 apiece.

Aaron Trumbull banked in eight, Griggs and Walstad netted five each, Dalton Martin swished three, Risen Johnson popped for two and CJ Smith tickled the twines for a free throw.

JV stays close: The Wolves played straight up with BC for three quarters before falling a bit short in the third quarter, dropping their record to 0-3.

Brian Shank was a bright, shining star, however, swishing all three of his long-range bombs from three-point land.

No other stats were available.