Coupeville Sports

   Hunter Smith poured in 15 Friday, moving into 13th place on the Coupeville boys basketball career scoring chart. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Now, they play for pride.

Unable to recover from a large early deficit Friday after its #2 scorer was literally knocked out of the game, the Coupeville High School boys basketball squad was eliminated from playoff contention.

Falling 64-41 at Port Townsend, the Wolves drop to 3-4 in Olympic League play, 5-12 overall.

With only two boys teams advancing to the postseason this year, Klahowya (6-1) and Port Townsend (5-2) have clinched those berths.

Coupeville closes with three games next week, traveling to Sequim for a non-conference tilt Tuesday, before welcoming Klahowya to Whidbey Thursday for Senior Night.

The season finale comes next Saturday, Feb. 3, when the Wolves travel to Chimacum to face the win-less (0-7) Cowboys.

After splitting the first two games this season with Port Townsend, CHS went into Friday’s rumble hoping for a strong showing.

And while the Wolves brought consistent effort, the RedHawks were in the zone and never left.

“They came out and shot the lights out to start the game,” said Coupeville coach Brad Sherman. “And then just really took advantage of how big and solid they are inside.

“We actually played a decent game. Kind of fought and fought but just couldn’t make a big enough push to get back to even,” he added. “I think they will be really hard to beat (in the playoffs).”

With Noa Montoya dropping in 10 points in the first eight minutes, Port Townsend jumped out to a 26-10 lead which drew two exclamation points in the score-book from the home stat keeper.

The Wolves played relatively close in the second quarter (an 11-9 deficit) and fourth (a 17-14 advantage), but a cold-shooting third (a 13-5 deficit) doomed them for good.

Along with the loss, Coupeville took a body blow when senior Ethan Spark was brutalized, taking a shot to the face that left him with a gash inside his mouth, a partially-dislodged tooth and a fair amount of his blood on the court.

“He left his mark on Port Townsend, that’s for sure!,” said mom Kali Barrio.

Spark wanted to re-enter the game, but officials declined. Early indications are that he did not suffer a concussion, however.

Fellow senior Hunter Smith paced the Wolves, rattling the rims for 15 points and reaching a couple of new marks along the way.

He finished the night with 776 points, passing ’60s star Barry Brown (769) for 13th place on the CHS boys career scoring chart.

With 311 points this season, and 332 last year, Smith becomes the 13th Wolf male to put up back-to-back 300-point seasons since 1960, and the first since Mike Bagby did so in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006.

Joey Lippo backed Smith up with seven points, while Mason Grove (6), Spark (4), Hunter Downes (4), Jered Brown (3) and Kyle Rockwell (2) also scored.

JV falls short:

One bad quarter doomed the Wolf young guns in a 47-30 loss.

Coupeville’s second squad falls to 3-4 in league play, 4-12 overall.

Trailing just 10-8 at the first break, CHS was outscored 17-7 in the second quarter and never fully recovered.

After torching the RedHawks for 30+ points, and multiple three-balls, in both of the team’s previous games, Grove settled for seven free throws in limited time.

While he only played two quarters, allowing him equal time in the varsity game, the CHS sophomore topped a milestone, pushing his JV scoring to 301 points on the season.

Sage Downes led the Wolves with nine, while Ulrik Wells and Jean Lund-Olsen both dropped in four.

Jake Pease, Daniel Olson and Gavin Knoblich rounded out the scoring with a bucket apiece.