Still alive!!

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Still alive!!

February 4, 2015 by David Svien

Don’t ever doubt Wiley Hesselgrave’s heart. (John Fisken photo)

One torrid 33-point fourth quarter rally later, the dream of advancing to the playoffs still lives for the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad.

Trailing by 15 with eight minutes to play at Port Townsend Tuesday, when a loss would have eliminated them from postseason contention, the Wolves rode the hot shooting touch of Wiley Hesselgrave all the way back to capture a shocking 60-57 win.

The CHS junior poured in 14 of his 26 points down the stretch to spark Coupeville to its second straight win over the Redhawks.

Now 6-11 overall, 2-5 in Olympic League play, the Wolves are in a tie for third place with Port Townsend with two to play, but own the tiebreaker.

While they can’t catch Chimacum (6-1) or Klahowya (4-3 and owner of a tiebreaker over CHS), they are in prime position to earn the league’s final playoff berth.

To get into that position, the Wolves had to dig down deep.

Saddled with numerous injured players, including two who gutted it out and played through foot pain in Aaron Trumbull and Joel Walstad, Coupeville trailed by seven at the half.

The third quarter wasn’t much better, as Port Townsend stretched its lead out to 15.

But then, a miracle.

A Wolf team which had scored just 27 points in the first 24 minutes suddenly couldn’t miss in the fourth, raining down buckets from all directions and getting the Redhawks frazzled as their lead slipped away.

“When we’re on our game, we allow other teams to get frustrated,” Coupeville coach Anthony Smith said with a chuckle. “We just believed and grinded and grinded and grinded and sank our free throws and got our rebounds.”

While Hesselgrave was near unstoppable — including hitting key free throws off of a Port Townsend technical late in the game — having Walstad on the floor, even at less than 100%, was a huge factor.

“Joel played tough. He didn’t start, but he finished,” Smith said. “With him out there, we are a much better team.”

Hesselgrave snatched three boards and made off with three steals to go with his offensive output, while Trumbull and Ryan Griggs paced a strong team rebounding effort with seven boards apiece.

Curtin popped for 10 points, while Walstad (7), Griggs (5), Trumbull (5), Risen Johnson (3), Matt Shank (2) and CJ Smith (2) rounded out the scorers.