Hunter Downes drew praise for his play on the boards and in the paint Friday against a physical Sequim team. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Big, strong and aggressive.
It’s a potent mix, as the Coupeville High School boys basketball squad found out the hard way Friday night.
Roughed up down low, scorched from out high and troubled by inconsistent reffing, the Wolves weren’t able to get over the hump against 2A Sequim, eventually falling 59-35 to the visitors in the purple shoes.
The loss drops Coupeville to 1-2 heading into another non-conference game Saturday, this one on the road at South Whidbey.
Sequim rolled into town with a height advantage on the small but scrappy Wolves, and they rode their big man, Payton Glasser, who pounded away for a game-high 30 points.
While you could reasonably argue he’s not really the six-foot-five the program claims, that hardly mattered as he scored inside, outside and at the free throw line with abandon.
Coupeville did its best to slow down its rivals, but Sequim was crisp and efficient with its passing, and took advantage of every little opportunity it could claim.
“We played fairly tough on defense,” CHS coach Brad Sherman said. “We were fighting pretty hard, but it’s not easy when you’re playing a team that’s so big and strong down low.”
He praised senior Hunter Downes, a five-foot-11 rock who fought like a wild man on the boards, and was quick to embrace the quick turn-around his squad will have as it heads to Langley.
“We’ll learn from it,” Sherman said. “Good thing is there’s not a lot of time to hang our heads.”
The Wolves stayed close well into the second quarter, pulling within 16-13 when sophomore Jered Brown drilled a three-ball from the left side for his first points of the season.
But, while that seemed like a major turning point, the floor fell out from beneath Coupeville two seconds later.
Glasser knocked down a bucket off a quick cut inside, and Sequim was off and running on a game-busting 12-0 run from which CHS was never able to fully recover.
The Wolves closed the half on a 5-0 mini-run of their own, with Dane Lucero capping things by putting a rebound back up and in at the buzzer, but the offense went cold after the break.
Coupeville could only manage 13 second-half points, and the best play came not off of a bucket, but on a hustle play on defense in the waning moments.
With the game already decided, Joey Lippo, who is performing with twin sister Skyy in “The Nutcracker” the next two weekends, went full ballet.
Flying airborne while spinning, his body a millimeter away from the end line, he somehow punched a loose ball off of a Sequim player’s chest at the very last second, causing it to deflect out of bounds.
Regaining possession at a most unexpected moment, Coupeville responded with its final bucket, a pull-up jumper from Hunter Smith on the ensuing play.
In the grand scheme of things, Lippo’s play didn’t change anything all that much, but it was a nice salve for a Wolf fan base which spent much of the game hollering at the refs.
Sequim earned 18 free throw attempts (hitting 10), while Ethan Spark was the lone CHS player to step to the charity stripe on this night, netting three of his four attempts.
The refs, for their part, were serenaded with choruses of “three seconds, four seconds, five seconds,” as they seemed to allow the visitors to frequently camp in the key.
Of course, if Coupeville could have gotten the ball to pop out of the basket a few less times, that hardly would have mattered.
“We had our share of open looks, but the shots were just not falling tonight,” Sherman said.
Smith paced Coupeville with 15 points, passing three more former greats as he climbs from #41 to #38 on the Wolf boys basketball career scoring list.
With 524 points, he vaults Cody Peters (518), Gary Faris (518) and JJ Marti (520), pulling within a bucket of Brad Miller (526).
Spark added 11, while Brown (3), Lippo (2), Downes (2) and Lucero (2) also scored.
Cameron Toomey-Stout was a devil on defense (and yet not a hair on his head was out of place) while Gavin Knoblich came off the bench to crash the boards.
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