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Archive for the ‘Boys Basketball’ Category

“You are my brothers”

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on February 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Wolf hoops star Nick Guay looms large on Senior Night. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

“This was a journey I never thought would end.”

While the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball squad still has games left to play — both the regular season finale at La Conner and playoff action — Friday night was a milestone for the Wolf seniors.

CHS coach Brad Sherman and his assistants honored 10 Wolves — nine players and an indispensable manager — before going out and whacking Friday Harbor.

Whether they expected it or not, Senior Night had arrived in Cow Town.

Whether it was William Davidson, who provided the quote to kick off this article, or Zane Oldenstadt, who closes it, the sentiments were the same.

“You are more than my teammates; you are my brothers. It’s been an amazing seven years and we aren’t done yet.”

Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim

Mikey Robinett

Zane Oldenstadt

Thomas Studer

Timothy Nitta

Cole White

William Davidson

Ryan Blouin

Nick Guay

Logan Downes

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Cry me a river, Friday Harbor

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on February 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Losers yap. Winners smile. Zane Oldenstadt is a winner. (Michelle Glass photo)

He who celebrates last, celebrates loudest.

Yappy Friday Harbor varsity boys’ hoops players acted like they won a state title when they claimed an early lead Friday night in Coupeville.

By the time they exited Cow Town? Those same Wolverines had a lot less to say, after being eliminated from playoff contention.

Celebrating Senior Night in style, a Coupeville squad which features nine 12th graders held firm while being poked, prodded, and verbally harassed, claiming a 56-52 win and keeping alive its own dream of winning a league title.

Now 6-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 14-5 overall, the Wolves are a half-game off of La Conner (6-0, 13-5) heading into a road trip to square off with those Braves on the mainland Feb. 6.

Friday’s win clinches a district playoff berth for CHS, but a win over La Conner, which it lost to by a single point the first time around, will give Coupeville at least a share of the NWL title.

Seeding for the four-team, double-elimination, two-teams-advance-to-state district tourney is still in flux, with La Conner also playing Friday Harbor in the regular-season finale Feb. 9.

If the Wolves and Braves finish with the same record, the latter of those teams gets the #1 seed thanks to a pre-season tiebreaker draw by league athletic directors.

But if La Conner loses its final two games, Coupeville snatches the #1 seed and hosts its district opener.

All other tourney games will be at CHS regardless, with the Wolves playing host.

Having clinched a trip to the playoffs, the Coupeville seniors are guaranteed of playing on their home floor again. Still, they made sure Senior Night counted.

It began with the program’s all-time leading scorer, Logan Downes, who was injured just moments into his team’s last game and sat out the majority of that non-conference clash at Chief Leschi.

Logan Downes catches a photo op with the future of the Wolf hoops program. (Angie Downes photo)

Beginning, and ending, Friday night with a walking boot on his left leg, the senior gunner played through the pain, and had the hot hand in the first quarter.

Pulling off his own tribute to Willis Reed (look it up on Wikipedia, teenagers), Downes knocked down a trio of three-balls, then slashed to the hoop for a bucket on a feed from Cole White to cap an 11-point performance in the game’s first seven minutes.

While Friday Harbor jumped out to an 11-6 lead, then prematurely celebrated, Coupeville chipped away at the lead.

White and William Davidson, whose fan club rocked personalized t-shirts, joined Downes in scoring in the opening frame, with the Wolves pulling back within 17-16 at the break.

Showcasing its depth, Brad Sherman’s squad turned to Nick Guay and Chase Anderson in the second quarter, with the lanky duo combining for 15 points as Coupeville used an 18-8 run to claim the lead for good.

Guay pushed the Wolves ahead, rippling the net on a silky sideline jumper, while Anderson, flying pell-mell end-to-end, slapped home a breakaway bucket to stake CHS to a 34-25 lead at the half.

Coupeville pushed its advantage out as far as 14 points in the second half, with Downes getting hot again and Anderson continuing to rampage like a wild beast, gloriously annoying Friday Harbor on seemingly every play.

The lead was at 48-36 heading into the fourth, with the Wolves still up 53-40 midway through the final frame.

But give Friday Harbor some credit — it is a resilient team and one always capable of making a run.

Which the Wolverines demonstrated one final time, carving the lead down to 55-51 late, with a little help from the refs.

The guys in the striped shirts ignored a blatant travel in the middle of the court on a play in which the visitors drained a three-ball, while allowing the yapping to progressively grow.

Anderson drilled a late jumper over the Friday Harbor defense, and Downes hit a key free throw in the final seconds, but the Wolverines got plenty of extra chances.

Despite Friday Harbor’s players endlessly bitching from opening tip to postgame discussion over whether losers get to stop at McDonald’s, it was the Wolves who had the game’s only technical foul called on them.

With five seconds to play and Coupeville up by five.

That set up a potential game-tying finish, but Friday Harbor choked, missing one of two free throws and failing to hit a three-ball at the buzzer.

Coupeville is going to the playoffs. Friday Harbor is not. (Michelle Glass photo)

Basking in the afterglow of the win, and punching their playoff ticket, any Wolf looking at the book would have seen the kind of balanced scoring which delights a coach.

Downes scraped out 19 while playing on one normal leg, and now sits at 1,213 for his career, while Anderson banked in 14.

White (8), Guay (7), Hunter Bronec (3), Ryan Blouin (3) — thanks to a killer fourth-quarter three-ball — and Davidson (2) also scored, with Zane Oldenstadt, Hurlee Bronec, and Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim hitting the boards with authority.

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Stop them? Not likely!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on February 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Camden Glover rumbles in the paint. (Ember Light photos)

The freight train rolls on, smashing everything in its way.

With nine different players scoring Friday night, the Coupeville High School JV boys’ basketball squad crunched visiting Friday Harbor, collecting its sixth-straight win.

Nabbing a 76-36 victory, the red hot ‘n rolling Wolves get to 6-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 13-2 overall.

All that stands between Coupeville and a mythical JV league title is a win next Tuesday, Feb. 6 at La Conner in the season finale.

Seeing how they beat those Braves 61-22 the first time around, odds are in the favor of the Wolves.

Jack Porter heads to the bench, giving the other team a brief break from trying, and failing, to stop him from scoring.

The rematch with Friday Harbor, a team it beat by 14 earlier this season, was much more of a blowout.

Riding a torrid first quarter performance from big man Camden Glover, who poured in 13 of his 19 points in the opening eight minutes, CHS charged out to a 27-7 lead at the break.

While Friday Harbor played its best ball in the second frame, outscoring the Wolves 14-13, the second half was right back to the Wolves dominating on their home floor.

Jack Porter and Aiden O’Neill each knocked down seven points in the third to spur a 24-11 run, before Coupeville coasted in with a 12-4 performance in the final quarter.

Glover and Jack Porter shared team scoring honors, each draining 19 points, while Malachi Somes and O’Neill backed them up with seven apiece.

Landon Roberts (6), Johnny Porter (6), Davin Houston (5), Riley Lawless (4), and Sage Arends (3) also scored, with Jayden McManus contributing on defense.

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More beasts than men

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Jack Porter lofts a jumper. (Ember Light photo)

Slow them down? Nope. Beat them? Unlikely.

The rampaging Coupeville High School JV boys’ basketball squad destroyed another foe Saturday, scoring a season high as it crushed host Chief Leschi 78-32.

The non-conference victory in Puyallup lifts the Wolves to 12-2 with two tilts left on the schedule.

Up first is the home finale against Friday Harbor Feb. 2, then a last road trip Feb. 6 to La Conner.

Those are rematches against rivals the Wolves beat by 14 and 39, respectively, the first time around.

Coupeville’s JV is an equal opportunity juggernaut, with a 7-1 road record and a 5-1 mark at home.

Repping a 2B school, the Wolves only blemishes have been a four-point defeat to 1A Mount Baker and a last-second one-point loss to 3A Oak Harbor.

They’re coming for all the wins. (Jackie Saia photo)

Chief Leschi, like most of Coupeville’s opponents this season, was overmatched from the first tip to the final buzzer.

The Wolves blew out to a 24-3 lead by the first break, with Aiden O’Neill, Landon Roberts, Jack Porter, and Camden Glover combining to rain down pain on the Warriors.

The hosts actually put up a decent fight in the second quarter, outscoring Coupeville 13-9 to slightly trim the halftime deficit down to 33-16.

That was the cue for Jack Porter and Glover to go right back to work, the duo dominating in the paint as CHS doubled its output with a 33-point explosion in the third frame.

Comfortably up 66-26, with a running clock hurrying things along, the Wolves closed out the night and headed back to the bus, whistling as they went.

Jack Porter finished with a game-high 23, while Glover threw down 20 and Riley Lawless chipped in with six.

O’Neill, Davin Houston, Johnny Porter, Roberts, Malachi Somes, and Jayden McManus banked in four points apiece, while Easton Green (3) and Sage Arends (2) also kept the bookkeeper busy.

Makai Myles rounded out the active roster, providing a defensive buzz to the offensive-heavy brew concocted by the Wolves.

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Early injury skews heavyweight rumble

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Timothy Nitta pulled off a beautiful three-point play the hard way Saturday in Puyallup. (Jackie Saia photo)

It was the showdown which didn’t really happen.

At least not the way it was intended.

Saturday’s prime time special in Puyallup pitted two of the best teams in 2B boys’ basketball against each other, only to have things take a jarring left turn just minutes into the game.

Coupeville’s leading scorer, Logan Downes, who is averaging 24.5 points a night, went down with what looked like an ankle injury after only getting up one shot.

After that, a three-man ref crew which all appeared to be blind in at least one eye, further knifed the Wolves, who stayed scrappy but fell 61-42 to a strong Chief Leschi squad.

The non-conference loss, which ended with Coupeville shooting four technical free throws in the final seconds after the officials finally remembered they could call fouls on the host team, drops CHS to 13-5.

Chief Leschi improves to 15-4.

The Wolves are off for six days, not returning to the floor until Friday, Feb. 2, when they host Friday Harbor on Senior Night.

That will give time for greater clarity on the severity of Downes injury.

Coupeville trailed just 6-2 when it lost its leader and pulled to within 9-7 later in the first quarter after two strong plays.

On the first, Cole White scored on an inbounds play in which he bounced the ball off a rival’s back, then slapped home the layup.

Cole White slices through the defense. (Addie Russell photo)

The second was a three-ball drained from the top by big man Hunter Bronec, wanderin’ far away from the rim and suddenly looking like vintage Dirk Nowitzki.

Unfortunately for the Wolves, that was where things dried up for a bit.

With the offensive attack hamstrung by the loss of its scoring ace, and foul trouble for his main support guys — Chase Anderson and Cole White — CHS went dry from the floor.

Chief Leschi, by contrast, rained down a series of three-balls, with one to end the first frame and four more to make the second quarter uncomfortable for the Wolves.

A 14-7 lead at the first break blossomed into a 34-13 advantage at the half, and things looked bleak.

But the Wolves dug down deep, getting quality minutes from bench players such as Timothy Nitta and Zane Oldenstadt, and battled back in the second half.

Anderson threw down all 10 of his points in the third quarter, including rippling the net on a pair of three-balls, and CHS cut a 25-point deficit down to 44-30 late in the frame.

Chief Leschi didn’t blink, however, ending the quarter on a 3-0 mini-surge, before icing the game with an 11-4 tear to open the fourth.

Even then, with too little time remaining to seriously threaten the Warriors, the Wolves reached deep for one more comeback try.

Hunter Bronec and White knocked down back-to-back buckets in the paint while being pummeled, and Coupeville closed the night on an 8-3 rally, outscoring their foes in the second half.

That included White and Ryan Blouin slipping free throws through the net after Chief Leschi was assessed two technical fouls on the same play.

The gym was heated, both sides believed they were being shafted, and yet, to prove I might have been wrong with my earlier jab about blind refs, a look at the scorebook reveals a weird fact.

Based on watching the game, I would have sworn Coupeville players had twice as many fouls called on them, and yet it was 20-20.

Dead even, unless you count the two techs, which actually puts Chief Leschi in the lead.

Weirdness, man.

With Downes on the sideline, ice packed on his ankle, White stepped up and drilled a team-high 15 points, which pushes him into a new pay bracket.

The pale prairie prince cracks the 350-point club, just the 79th Wolf boy to do so in 107 seasons.

Take his 352 points, add them to dad Greg’s 604, and Rock White’s offspring are getting dangerously close to reaching 1,000 points as a family.

Anderson added 10 in support Saturday, while Hunter Bronec banked in nine and Nitta pulled off a three-point play the hard way.

Guay (2), Hurlee Bronec (2), and Blouin (1) rounded out the attack, with William Davidson, Oldenstadt, Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, Mikey Robinett, Aiden O’Neill, and (briefly) Downes also seeing the floor.

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