Coupeville sophomore Jered Brown netted five points Friday against Orcas Island. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
These are the days to learn lessons.
Working its way through a tough non-conference schedule, which includes a 69-53 home loss to Orcas Island Friday, the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball squad is preparing for the stretch run.
That’ll come when the Wolves return to the floor in 2018 — kicking things off Jan. 5-6 with back-to-back home games.
After going 3-6 in 2017, absorbing some dings against top-quality foes, CHS will close the regular season with eight Olympic League games in their final 11 contests.
Sitting in a first-place tie with Klahowya at 1-0, the Wolves, who should finally have a complete roster for the first time with the start of the new year, are ready to make a run.
Or, at least that’s the plan.
“Eight league games in front of us,” said first-year Coupeville coach Brad Sherman. “About to get real.”
When they clash with Klahowya, Port Townsend and Chimacum for playoff berths and a league title, the Wolves will be able to look back at games like the one they played Friday and build on what went right, while tweaking what went wrong.
In many ways, Coupeville didn’t lose as much as Orcas simply won.
The Vikings were a very-precise, very-sound, virtually error-free squad which shot a staggering percentage from the field, made every pass count and committed very few turnovers.
Trying to answer, the Wolves played a faster and looser game, and, when it worked, they made the nets jump. But, too many times they gave their seasoned foes extra opportunities.
“Orcas played a good game with a balanced scoring attack,” Sherman said. “I thought at times we got a little careless with the ball, so that’s an area we need to focus on.”
The game was much closer than the final score might indicate, as a game-clinching 12-0 Orcas run in the fourth quarter warped things a bit.
Coupeville never led in the game, but hung around within four to six points for most of the night.
The two teams traded blows early, with Orcas dropping in four successful bombs from behind the three-point arc in the first quarter.
CHS responded with a pair of its own treys, from Ethan Spark and Jered Brown, while Hunter Smith began to work on his game-high 25 points with a pair of artful runs at the bucket.
On the first one, the senior shooting star tiptoed through a mob of defenders in the paint, slapping home a layup over outstretched arms, while on the second one he committed, if not murder, at least manslaughter.
Isolated one-on-one against an Orcas defender, Smith abused the Viking so bad on the ensuing play, the kid’s dead ancestors at least three generations back will feel the shame tonight.
To say he broke both of the defender’s ankles, shredded his soul and made him burst out crying (on the inside at least) is an understatement.
Trailing just 19-16 at the first break, Coupeville went to the three-ball attack in the second quarter, while Orcas countered with a string of short, and very precise, jumpers in the paint.
Smith and Spark hit a pair of treys, with Smith going off for 10 points in the quarter, and the Wolves were down 37-32 at the half.
Orcas tried to pull away a bit in the third, stretching the lead into double digits for the first time, but several more buckets from Smith and a put-back by Hunter Downes kept things semi-reasonable.
Downes bucket came off of a rebound in which the scrappiest of all Wolves ripped the ball free with such force he nearly tore the arm off of an Orcas player’s body.
The sheer precision with which the Vikings played finally became too much to deal with in the fourth. A 12-0 run stretched the lead to 64-44, effectively ending things.
To their credit, the Wolves closed on a 9-5 tear, with Smith getting three the easy way (a long trey) and three the hard way (a slash to the bucket for a layup and the ensuing foul shot after getting hammered.)
His 25-point performance carried Smith past three more former Wolf greats.
Now sitting with 639 career points, he passed Wiley Hesselgrave (632), Kramer O’Keefe (636) and Rich Morris (637) Friday and sits #24 on the Wolf boys basketball all-time scoring list.
Spark knocked down 16 points, including four treys, to back Smith up, while Brown (5), Downes (4) and Mason Grove (3) chipped in to the scoring effort.
Dane Lucero, Gavin Knoblich and Ulrik Wells, whose rebounding was praised by Sherman, all saw floor times, as well.
JV sidelined:
While three of Coupeville’s four hoops teams played Friday, the Wolf JV boys sat, as Orcas was unable to field a second squad.
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