Sage Downes, seen in an earlier game, rippled the nets for nine points Wednesday as Coupeville beat La Conner. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
The big payback.
Cue the primo ’70s James Brown funk for the bus ride home, cause the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball team delivered a statement win Wednesday night.
Using a 13-0 second-quarter run to take the lead for good, the Wolves savaged host La Conner 52-40, earning a measure of revenge.
Six days ago, Coupeville fell to the Braves on a last-second shot, a lacerating loss on their home floor.
With the victory Wednesday, the Wolves hushed a properly-enthuiastic La Conner crowd, earned a season split with one of their oldest of old-school rivals, and jumped to 4-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League play.
Now it’s on to a big home game Thursday, when CHS hosts Mount Vernon Christian, which is 5-1 in conference, with its only loss coming to the Wolves in the season opener.
If Coupeville plays Thursday like it did during much of Wednesday’s war, things will be looking good in Cow Town.
While it took the Wolves a bit to pull away, once they had the lead for good, they never surrendered it, using big fourth-quarter buckets to seal the deal.
The opening quarter was a war of attrition, as the two longtime rivals looked like they might settle for an extremely low-scoring defensive affair.
CHS captain Grady Rickner was the first to crack the puzzle of the scoreboard, netting a free throw nearly three minutes into the game, while La Conner nailed its first bucket at the 2:58 mark.
A three-point play the hard way from Xavier Murdy, who ripped down a rebound, then immediately shot back up to get the bucket and accompanying free throw, sent a momentary jolt through the assembled masses.
But, even after Sage Downes dropped in a roller off a Murdy pass, Coupeville’s margin was just 6-4 at the first break.
Then disaster struck. But just for a moment or two.
La Conner, which had been hucking three-point shots at the rim at an alarming rate, finally hit one, then made three in a row to reclaim the lead at 13-9 early in the second frame.
That seemed to be the cue for Coupeville, however, as the Wolves responded not with a whimper, but with a collective full-throated howl.
Hawthorne Wolfe picked the pocket of a La Conner ballhandler, then was gone the other way for a bucket before the Braves even knew anything had gone wrong.
That one carefully-crafted crime lit the fuse on a game-busting run, with Hawk and the Murdy brothers combining to power the aforementioned 13-0 surge.
Xavier Murdy, as usual, was everywhere, doing all the crucial little things.
But younger brother Alex also came up huge, pounding the boards and slamming down a put-back during the run.
Up 22-14 at the half, Coupeville kept memories of six days ago — when it lost a lead in the second half — at bay by spreading the offensive love around.
Five different Wolves tallied a point or more in the third, with much of the scoring coming at the free throw line, where CHS finished 15-for-21 on the night.
The lead ballooned out to nine, then came back down to 32-27 heading into the fourth, at which point the three-ball became the weapon of choice.
La Conner and Coupeville combined to hit six treys to open the fourth, but with a 4-2 advantage, the visitors pushed their lead to 11 points.
Xavier Murdy netted a three-ball from the right side, Wolfe rippled the nets from the top, with the daggers being back-to-back jackpot shots from Wolfe and Sage Downes.
Down 44-33, La Conner blew a prime chance, missing three of four free throws after a shooting foul and technical were wedded, and Coupeville seized the moment.
Grady Rickner slapped home a layup — with Wolfe pilfering the ball and feeding his teammate on the break — Xavier Murdy slipped a pair of free throws through the twines, and things were all but official.
X-Man finished with a game-high 19 points, while hitting a major milestone.
With 170 varsity points and counting, Xavier Murdy is now #150 on the CHS boys basketball career scoring chart, which covers 104 seasons.
Wednesday, he passed 12 former Coupeville players, from old-school pros like Dale Libbey (169) and Roger Sherman (168) to recent grads like Jered Brown (156) and Ulrik Wells (152).
Wolfe was hot on his heels, peppering La Conner for 16 points, including a trio of three-balls.
Having made the nets sing for 571 points, Hawk can see the 600-point club coming up fast, a destination only 32 CHS boys have reached.
The high-scoring duo had plenty of support against the Braves, with Sage Downes dropping in nine points, while Grady Rickner (3), Alex Murdy (3), and Logan Downes (2) also scored.
Logan Martin, TJ Rickner, and Daniel Olson all saw floor time, with the first two hitting the boards with a manic intensity, and the latter of the trio using his long arms to snuff out several La Conner passes.
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