Coupeville Sports

The Wolves have fun at an earlier game. (Photo courtesy Abbie Martin)

   Coupeville has invaded the Spokane Convention Center. (Photo courtesy Cheridan Eck)

Now they’re playing with the big boys.

Day one of the state tournament was a learning experience for the Coupeville 7th grade SWISH boys’ basketball squad.

A huge one.

Facing a big, veteran Tahoma team, the Wolves, who are a mix of 6th and 7th graders, struggled on the boards in the first half and were never able to fully recover, falling 53-21.

Coupeville returns to action Saturday morning in Spokane and will play three more games before the three-day tourney wraps up Sunday.

With Tahoma scorching the nets, and ripping down what few rebounds were available, the Wolves trailed 34-9 at the break.

The second half was an improvement, as Coupeville held its own, getting a boost of self confidence moving forward.

Jake Mitten paced the Wolves with eight points and six rebounds, while Matthew Kelley filled up the stat sheet with seven points, two boards, four assists and three blocked shots.

Daniel Olson, Dakota Eck and Alex Jimenez each dropped in a bucket to round out the scoring.

While Jimenez was scoring, he was also becoming a big brother, as his mom Lorena gave birth to Joshua back in Coupeville.

Eck snatched four rebounds and dealt out two assists, while Michael Laska (a rebound, an assist and a steal), Connor Barton (a rebound) and Hawthorne Wolfe (a rebound and a steal) all chipped in.