Coupeville Sports

Wiley Hesselgrave pumped in a team-high 10 Friday. (John Fisken photo)

“We could just never quite get over that hump.”

Despite playing host La Conner even for three of four quarters, one bad bump in the road derailed the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad Friday night.

Take away a 17-6 second quarter and the Wolves win by one. Add that back in and the Wolves fell 46-36.

The non-conference loss dropped Coupeville to 3-6 as it prepares to move into 1A Olympic League play.

The Wolves (0-1 in conference) play eight of their final 10 regular season games against league rivals Port Townsend, Chimacum and Klahowya.

First up is winless Port Townsend, which hosts CHS Tuesday night.

If the Wolves can cut down on “questionable fouls and missing a lot of easy layups,” not to mention turnovers — they had 18 against the Braves — things should turn upwards, said coach Anthony Smith.

Cold shooting also hurt them against La Conner, with Coupeville hitting on 13-43 from the field and 8-19 at the line.

Trailing in the latter stages, the Wolves had little choice but to foul, but the Braves, who went to the line 14 times in the fourth quarter, drained most of their charity stripe shots.

The team’s top two scorers on the season, junior Wiley Hesselgrave and senior Aaron Trumbull, both hit for 10 to pace Coupeville.

Dalton Martin added seven, while Risen Johnson (3), Joel Walstad (2), Matt Shank (2) and Aaron Curtin rounded out the scoring attack.

Shank hauled in nine boards, Curtin snatched seven caroms and made off with three steals and Walstad chipped in with six boards and two steals.

JV falls short:

Down eight at the half, the young Wolves “didn’t show up for the second half” and lost big.

“I have to get better consistency from the squad,” said Wolf JV coach Dustin Van Velkinburgh. “Played tough D in the first, the kind a coach could be proud of.”

Two highlights for Coupeville (2-6) were the continued rise of DeAndre Mitchell, who torched La Conner for 15 points and the play of the Wolf bench.

Over the game’s final four minutes, that unit outscored La Conner 7-4.