Coupeville Sports

   Joel Walstad scored seven Tuesday, but left the game midway through the third with an ankle injury. (John Fisken photo)

Wolf JV coach Dustin Van Velkinburgh talks strategy with his troops. (Madeline Strasburg photo)

The hunt for a playoff berth just got harder.

Not impossible, maybe, but more of an uphill battle, to be sure.

Take one comeback that ran out of time (the Wolves falling 67-59 at Chimacum Tuesday) and an improbable upset (Port Townsend knocking off Klahowya 51-48 in overtime) and the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad is now on the outside looking in as the battle for postseason berths winds down.

The loss dropped the Wolves to 5-10 overall, 1-4 in Olympic League play and leaves them alone in the cellar of the four team league, trailing Chimacum (4-1), Klahowya (3-2) and Port Townsend (2-3).

The top three teams make the postseason, with Coupeville having four games left on the schedule to fix things.

First up are road games at Klahowya (Jan. 30) and Port Townsend (Feb. 3), then home match-ups with Chimacum (Feb. 6) and Klahowya (Feb. 9).

One huge question for the Wolves will be health, as they’ve now had five varsity players go down with injuries.

Senior Aaron Trumbull has been limited the last two games by an ankle injury and now fellow starter Joel Walstad is questionable.

He hurt his ankle midway through the third quarter Tuesday, and early reports that he “heard a pop” aren’t encouraging.

“We’ll see how he’s doing by Friday and hope he’s back,” Wolf coach Anthony Smith said. “If he can’t go, we’ll have to adjust.”

Gabe Wynn, Jared Helmstadter and Dalton Martin are all out with injuries as well.

While much of Tuesday was doom and gloom, two things stood out for Coupeville.

A fourth quarter run sparked by the bench cut what had been a 22-point deficit down by quite a bit and junior guard Risen Johnson snatched the spotlight.

Pumping in a career-high 21, he used a variety of moves to dazzle the Cowboys.

Wiley Hesselgrave knocked down 13 before fouling out, while Aaron Curtin (9), Walstad (7), Ryan Griggs (6), Matt Shank (2) and CJ Smith (1) rounded out the scoring attack.

JV runs out of steam:

Down by seven at the half, the wheels fell off after the break for the Wolf JV boys.

The 54-30 loss dropped the young guns to 6-8 overall, 3-2 in league play.

“We have lost the competitive fire that we had a couple weeks ago,” said CHS coach Dustin Van Velkinburgh. “With four games to go we will recapture that and finish strong.”