Hawthorne Wolfe, seen here in his SWISH days, scored 17 in his middle school hoops debut. (Pat Kelley photo)
Aiden Burdge, who turned three steals into six points, poses with part of his fan club. (Photo courtesy Kiara Burdge)
The game changed in a flash.
For the first 10 minutes Thursday, Coupeville and Sequim’s 7th grade boys’ basketball squads were content to exchange body blows in a tightly-contested contest.
Then Hawthorne Wolfe, with his electric shooting touch, came off the CMS bench and the somewhat-annoying visiting fans got really, really quiet in a big hurry.
With Wolfe going off for a game-high 17, including 12 straight at one point in the third, Coupeville stretched a two-point lead to 17, then sauntered home with a 47-41 opening night victory.
CMS coach Randy King, battling illness, had virtually no voice by the end.
The Wolf fans were in a similar condition, but their vocal straining came from screaming like banshees as Wolfe slid dagger after dagger through the net.
When he first hit the court, Coupeville was clinging to a 10-8 lead, benefiting greatly from the solid inside work of Caleb Meyer and Xavier Murdy.
Meyer, who would have been the heir to the Videoville throne if video stores were still paying me to watch movies, took the ball to the hoop with polished aggression all night.
His running mate is Mr. Clean, since Murdy pulled down every last rebound within a ten-mile radius, helping CMS to get out and run and then get multiple chances on the offensive end.
Once Wolfe slipped onto the court, the flow changed, as the quicksilver one darted in front of a pass, picked it clean, then outran a pack of Sequim players for a swooping layup.
He nailed the first of his three treys two plays later, and the Wolves went to the locker room up 19-17 after Connor Barton beat the defense and the buzzer with a gorgeous drive through the paint.
Whatever the two teams drank at halftime put an extra kick in their step, as the schools combined to score 37 points in a wild third quarter.
Barton, Meyer and Grady Rickner knocked down buckets, then Wolfe hit like TNT.
He ripped off 12 straight CMS points, doubling Sequim’s output in the same time period, and his offensive show was far from one-dimensional.
A three-ball from the left, a swooping layin off a pass from Murdy, a steal that led to a breakaway bucket, a little runner in the paint and then the coup de grâce.
Coupeville beat Sequim’s full-court press as Barton heaved the ball down the line while on the move.
For a second, the ball seemed intent on flying over Wolfe’s head for a turnover, but he snagged it over his shoulder, whirled, put the ball once on the floor, then drilled a trey.
As the fans were just beginning to comprehend what they had seen, another CMS player went on his own run, as Rickner knocked down three straight shots to officially slay Sequim.
Two more buckets from Meyer to kick off the fourth stretched the lead out to 47-30, before Sequim chipped away at the deficit with a late run.
While Wolfe’s 17-point middle school debut is one for the ages, Coupeville got something from everyone on the floor.
Meyer banged home 10, Rickner hit for eight, Murdy swished six, Barton tinkled the twines for four and Cody Roberts had two on a nifty give-and-go.
Logan Martin was the lone Wolf not to score, but he hauled down a ton of rebounds, made crisp passes and was a stalwart on defense for Coupeville.
JV almost pulls off a miracle:
The CMS 7th grade JV, facing a Sequim squad that was a mix of 7th and 8th graders, scored the game’s final seven points, but time ran out on them in a 22-19 loss.
Down by 10 and dealing with a running clock, as the visitors inched closer and closer to the door with plans to dash off to the ferry, Coupeville made an inspired late stand.
Daniel Barajas, Aiden Burdge and Gabe Shaw hit back-to-back-to-back buckets, with Shaw’s coming off a steal by Jonathan Carroll, before Barajas netted a free throw.
Coupeville then forced a turnover, but the ball got loose and rolled away.
As the running clock madly ticked down, the young Wolves, not realizing how little time was left (and the reduced-to-a-whisper King being unable to scream above the crowd) never got the ball back in play in time to heave a desperation three-point shot.
Barajas paced CMS with seven, while Burdge drained six, with all three of his buckets coming off of steals.
Shaw dropped in four and Miles Davidson, the game’s leading rebounder, knocked down a basket to round out the scoring.
Carroll, Tony Garcia, Logan Wertz and Joseph Starr also saw floor time for the Wolves.
