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Archive for the ‘Boys Basketball’ Category

Stellar start, foul finale

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Chase Anderson cracked the 100-point club Thursday in Ellensburg. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

This was a nasty plot twist.

More along the lines of The Village than say, The Usual Suspects or Psycho.

The reveals at the end of those latter two classic films add to the power of what came before, while the answer to the mystery in M. Night Shyamalan’s 2004 fart-fest rightfully earned more grimaces than standing ovations.

And, while we’re here to talk basketball and not films, the end result of the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ game against Kittitas Thursday was its own straight-up flop.

The Wolves hit the floor at Central Washington University boasting a stellar 6-1 record, with their foes coming in at 1-6.

Cue the romp, as Coupeville roared out to a 15-0 lead … then gave it all back and more.

Despite holding the Coyotes scoreless for six-plus minutes to open the game, the Wolves eventually lost 63-54.

The best news? The Wolves turn around immediately and play Cle Elum-Roslyn Friday morning at 11:00 AM.

Short memories. Rain down revenge. All that jazz.

Of course, to do so, the Wolves will need to get back their shot-making ability, which all but deserted them over the game’s final 12 minutes.

Even having had its lead chipped away at, Coupeville was still up 33-25 midway through the third quarter.

Hunter Bronec had just scored on a superb give-and-go play, coming on the heels of buckets from Ryan Blouin and Logan Downes, and the Wolves, while cracking, weren’t breaking.

Then they rolled snake eyes.

Kittitas, mixing three-balls from the corners with deadly precision on its mid-range jumpers, closed the third quarter on an 18-2 tear that changed the entire flow of the game.

From eight up to eight down, and everything was spinning for the Wolves.

It didn’t get much better from there, as the Coyotes had a counter for everything Coupeville did in the final frame.

CHS got the deficit back down to four points at 58-54, after Cole White ripped a ball loose in the backcourt and fed Nick Guay for a bucket, but Kittitas hit five of six at the free throw line to seal the improbable win.

It was a stinky end to a game which started with so much potential.

Ryan Blouin buried a three-ball from the top of the arc to open things, and the Wolves couldn’t be stopped in the early going.

All five Coupeville starters recorded a bucket in the opening frame, with many of them set up by steals or blocked shots.

Hunter Bronec owned the paint, rejecting three shots — two on the same possession — while Blouin and Downes ripped off sparkling set-up passes to teammates running untouched and unruffled by too-slow Kittitas defenders.

The Coyotes finally scored at the 1:44 mark of the first quarter, on a three-point play the hard way, then got a huge chunk of their future points via three-balls.

Coupeville didn’t hit another trey after Blouin’s game opener, while Kittitas rang up eight daggers across the rest of the evening.

Downes paced the Wolves with a team-high 17, but was poked, prodded, kneed, and elbowed every time he came close to touching the ball.

His primary support came from White, who poured in 14, and Hunter Bronec, who slapped home eight points.

Chase Anderson (6), Blouin (5), William Davidson (2), and Guay (2) also scored, with Zane Oldenstadt, Timothy Nitta, Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, and Hurlee Bronec also seeing floor time.

Not to be lost in the moment, Anderson achieved a personal milestone, joining the 100-point club with a fourth-quarter jumper.

The Wolf sophomore heads into Friday’s game with Cle Elum with 101 points and counting for his varsity career.

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Road warriors can win at home, too

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim came up big at both ends of the floor Tuesday as Coupeville held off feisty Forks. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Seven games into the season, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team finally has a home win.

Of course, since the Wolves are 6-1, that little factoid probably hasn’t given Wolf coach Brad Sherman too many sleepless nights.

His squad is a pristine 5-0 away from The Rock, which bodes well for a team which heads East for two holiday games later this week.

And, given a rare chance to show out on their home court Tuesday, the Wolves did just that, outlasting a physical, persistent Forks squad to capture a 63-59 non-conference win.

Which also bodes well, as it showed a senior-heavy Coupeville hardwood team is built to withstand tough showdowns.

Forks came hard, with the Spartans giving their all in a rough-and-tumble contest which played out in front of an enthusiastic pro-Wolf crowd.

In general, the refs seemed to make an unspoken agreement to let the teams decide the game on the floor.

So instead of a night of 1,001 free throws, we got a nice, rock-em, sock-em, back-and-forth tilt in which the winner was decided based on grit and toughness.

Give the Spartans credit — they never backed down.

But give the Wolves more credit, for dropping the hammer at exactly the right moments.

And it was every Wolf making an impact, as role players Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, Zane Oldenstadt, and Hunter Bronec delivered big-time crunch plays when it mattered most.

Coupeville’s seniors bask in another win. (Michael Davidson photo)

Simpson-Pilgrim was a force on defense, anchoring Coupeville’s zone, while also cleaning the glass.

Oldenstadt and Bronec also hit the boards with zeal, setting up plays which knifed the Spartans just as they seemed primed to make their move.

Bronec snatched an offensive board and powered back up through a thicket of hands for a bucket to stake CHS to a five-point lead late in the fourth quarter.

Oldenstadt, a bearded big man who lives to bang in the paint, pulled down a defensive board shortly afterwards, flipping the ball to Logan Downes, then enjoying the show.

Slipping into his quarterback alter ego, the senior sniper launched a full-court pass and dropped it onto the fingers of a streaking Cole White, who stopped on a dime, left some change behind, and drilled a sweet little jumper as his mom lost her mind in the front row.

Not content to stop there, Downes sealed the win.

Not with any of his season-high 36 points, but with a hustle play on defense.

Down by four with the clock madly running out, Forks had a potential breakaway to slice the lead to a bucket and set up a nail-biter finish.

Instead, Downes, sprinting from one side of the floor to the other, snatched the ball away while airborne, hung motionless long enough to wink at the Forks fans, then slammed the ball off a Spartan’s crotch, the ball skidding out of bounds.

No bucket, a (sort of) Forks turnover, Coupeville possession, and time to light up a victory cigar while your foe tries to restore feeling to his tender vittles.

That capped a royal rumble in which the Spartans led early, rumbling out to a 14-9 lead late in the first quarter.

But like Muhammad Ali employing the rope-a-dope strategy, Downes was letting Forks tire itself out before launching his own string of uppercuts.

Wham-bam-and-double-wham-bam.

Three trips down the floor to end the first quarter, and three consecutive three-balls knifing through the bottom of the net, as Downes made it rain.

The final trey, staking CHS to an 18-14 lead heading into the first break, sent the CHS senior past ’70s legend Bill Riley and into 6th place on the Wolf boys career scoring chart.

With 13 regular season games left on the schedule, then a potential playoff run, Downes, who now has 956 points, trails just Jeff Rhubottom (1012), Mike Criscuola (1031), Randy Keefe (1088), Mike Bagby (1137), and Jeff Stone (1137).

While Downes racked up 15 points in the first quarter Tuesday, he wasn’t done, adding nine more in the second frame as Coupeville inched its lead out to 34-29.

Hunter Bronec delivered a tooth-rattling rejection to a Forks player probably sorry he attempted to shoot, while Chase Anderson and William Davidson had crisply delivered passes to set up key buckets.

That captured the feeling of the entire night, as while Downes was pumping in points, it was a sterling team-wide performance in every aspect of the game.

Sometimes it was Ryan Blouin, who opened things with a three-ball, then closed the third quarter by pulling up and dropping a jumper right in the face of his defender to break a 46-46 tie.

Other times it was Hurlee Bronec outdueling Spartans for crucial rebounds, Nick Guay keeping the ball whipping around the arc, or White absorbing brutal offensive charges, trying to uphold his streak of bleeding in nearly every game.

Sister Riley makes a guess at how many times Cole White has bled in a game this season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Forks made run after run and managed to tie the game up twice late in the third, but never regained the lead after Downes went on his three-ball run of terror back in the opening quarter.

That left CHS coach Brad Sherman with a satisfied smile on his face after the game, but also glad his team gets a day off to rest before their Eastern Washington games.

The Wolf boys will travel with their female counterparts, rest Wednesday, then play Kittitas Thursday and Cle Elum Friday.

After that, they’re off until Jan. 5.

In their rare home appearance, the Wolves got points from seven players, with White (8), Anderson (6), Blouin (5), Hunter Bronec (4), Hurlee Bronec (2), and Simpson-Pilgrim (2) backing up Downes (36), who broke 30 points for the third time this season.

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Road? Home? Just win, baby!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Landon Roberts, seen with dad Jon and big sis Lindsey, scored eight points in a win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

So, this is what the Coupeville High School gym complex looks like.

Playing at home for the first time in six games this season, the Wolf JV boys’ basketball squad didn’t skip a beat, rolling to its fifth straight win.

Thunking visiting Forks 50-35 Tuesday, the Coupeville young guns grab their fifth-straight win and head into the new year boasting a 5-1 record.

While their varsity counterparts hit the road to Eastern Washington for a pair of holiday games, the JV doesn’t return to the court until Jan. 5.

When they do, the Wolves will be right back where they’re used to being — sitting on a school bus bumping down the back roads of America, this time headed for Darrington.

After that, six of their final nine games will be at home.

Squaring off with a rough-and-tumble group of hardwood hooligans from Forks, the young Wolves hit the gas pedal early Tuesday and never let the Spartans get a toehold.

Camden Glover, banging away down low in the paint, dominated in the first quarter, outscoring the visitors 9-8 by himself.

Tack on four apiece for Jack Porter, Landon Roberts, and Johnny Porter, and Coupeville had a 21-8 advantage heading into the first break.

The two teams actually played almost even from that point on, but that also meant Forks had little chance to play catch-up.

The lead slid out to 28-12 at the half, slightly cut back to 42-28 through three, then finished with little reason for the Wolves to sweat.

Glover finished with a game-high 18 points, while Aiden O’Neill and Jack Porter both banked in 10 in support of their big guy.

Roberts (8) and Johnny Porter (4) rounded out the scoring, with Davin Houston, Easton Green, Malachi Somes, Riley Lawless, and Makai Myles crashing the boards and harassing Spartan ballhandlers.

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Calm, composed, and ready for the kill shot

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on December 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

The stands are different colors in every new road gym, but Coupeville wins in them all. (Michelle Glass photo)

It’s the little things.

A senior-heavy Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team has shot out to a 5-1 record, with all the wins coming on the road, by doing the sorts of things which warm a coach’s heart.

Like taking offensive charges, grabbing rebounds in traffic, and staying composed when tempers start to fray.

That veteran mindset was on full display Friday on Friday Harbor, as the Wolves overcame a malfunctioning scoreboard and a chippy Wolverines squad to claim a 63-55 win.

The victory lifts CHS to 1-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, putting it a half-game off of early frontrunner Mount Vernon Christian (2-0), which comes to Coupeville Jan. 19 for a royal rumble.

Friday’s tense tilt lived up to expectations, as something weird always seems to happen when the Wolves travel to the outer islands.

This time it was a badly misfiring scoreboard which went kaput, momentarily roared to life to the musical strains of The Final Countdown, then crashed again.

That left everyone guessing as to the score, the team fouls, and the time left to play, before Friday Harbor finally got the hamster back up to full speed on the treadmill which allegedly powers its board.

Wandering along in a game with a sort of streetball feel for much of the first half, Coupeville got three-balls from Logan Downes and Chase Anderson early but trailed 12-8 at the first break.

Cue a defensive surge, as the steal-happy Wolves got up in people’s grills and dominated for much of the second quarter to reclaim the lead.

Hunter Bronec, having the best offensive performance of his varsity hoops career, crashed hard to the hoop for back-to-back buckets, before Downes started picking pockets and turning what he found into breakaway layups.

Friday Harbor’s defense tried to throttle Coupeville’s main scoring option?

He promptly kicked the ball to running mate Ryan Blouin, who sank the first of his three treys on the night, each long range bomb a dart that deflated the Wolverines hopes and dreams.

Frustrating and flummoxing their foes, the Wolves ran the lead out to 30-20, then gave a bit back right before the half to head into the locker room up 30-25.

The third quarter was vintage “Let’s make Brad Sherman’s goatee go grey,” as his team surged to a 14-point lead, gave back half of that advantage, then re-stretched things back out to 50-39 by the end of the frame.

Cole White was a one-man highlight reel in the quarter, twisting and turning in midair while being banged around, yet still dropping in clutch buckets.

When the shot wasn’t there, the senior point guard was going all John Stockton on us, flinging an outlet pass from end to end, dropping the ball onto Anderson’s waiting fingertips as he flew by the Wolverines.

Coupeville’s seniors are built for this moment. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The tension in the joint noticeably raised in the second half, as both teams, while not playing dirty, did get more elbowy and “was that my knee that hit your groin?”

The refs stopped things to lecture both teams after a push and shove exchange briefly threatened to become more, and it seemed to work, as nobody got a technical or dropped a haymaker.

Instead, Coupeville reserved its kill shots for good old-fashioned hardnosed plays which were smart, and well-timed.

Clinging to a 54-50 lead, the Wolves got a HUGE rebound and putback from Hurlee Bronec, who completed the play by calmly flicking a free throw through the net while staring down the entire island.

Mere seconds later, Downes, seemingly drifting aimlessly, suddenly shot forward, slicing between snoozing defenders, taking an inbounds pass and slapping home the gut shot that put Friday Harbor out of its misery.

Sort of like in Of Mice and Men, when George caps Lennie behind the barn while he’s still rambling on about the rabbits.

Just with a hardwood twist to things, and no actual bloodshed.

While Friday Harbor did hit a three-ball right at the buzzer to cut the final margin to single digits, it was much too little, much too late.

Like Lennie, the Wolverines ain’t coming back from that walk in the woods.

Now, Coupeville gets a few unexpected days off, after South Whidbey had to postpone its trip to Cow Town Saturday due to a lack of eligible players.

The Wolves will get that elusive home game, but not until next Tuesday, Dec. 19, when Forks make the long trek out from the deep, dark woods.

While they rest up, fine tune their games, and possibly go read Of Mice and Men for the first time, the Wolves can also marinate in being part of history.

With his game-high 25 points Friday, Downes reaches a new personal milestone.

Now with 920 points and counting, he passes Pete Petrov (917) to claim 7th on the CHS career scoring list and is within range of Bill Riley (934) for 6th.

And Downes wasn’t the only Wolf to hit a round number, as Nick Guay cracked the 150-point club on a second quarter putback.

Nick Guay has deliveries to make, and the basket awaits. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Coupeville got points from seven different players, with Blouin (9), Anderson (8), Hunter Bronec (8), White (6), Hurlee Bronec (4), and Guay (3) also scoring.

William Davidson was the lone Wolf on the floor not to tally a point, but the senior big man came up big in those coach-pleasing intangibles we mentioned earlier, such as when he made a superb pass to set up Hunter Bronec for a bucket.

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New town, same old win

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Malachi Somes (back) was one of nine Wolves to score as Coupeville’s JV rolled to a fourth-straight road win. (Photo courtesy Megan Rickner)

Do they even want to come home?

The Coupeville High School JV boys’ basketball squad has played its first five games on the road this season, going from town to town terrorizing the locals.

Friday night the place to be was Friday Harbor, and once again the young Wolves were in fine form, drilling their hosts 64-50 in the conference opener for both teams.

The victory lifts Coupeville to 4-1 overall, 1-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, and pushes its win streak to four games.

The young guns were finally scheduled to play at home Saturday against South Whidbey, but the Falcons had to reschedule, so CHS will wait until next Tuesday, when Forks makes the trek to Cow Town.

Which might not be a bad thing as the JV was battling team-wide sickness Friday.

Not that it slowed the Wolves roll.

The first quarter was a tense affair, with Friday Harbor clinging to an 18-17 lead at the break.

That changed in a hurry, however, as seven different Wolves scored in the second frame, powering a game-changing 17-9 run.

Up 34-27 at the half, Coupeville poured in another 20 points in the third to build a 54-38 advantage, then gave the bench some major playing time in the fourth.

The Wolves got scoring from nine of 10 players in uniform, with Camden Glover (19) and Jack Porter (16) combining for 35 points.

Johnny Porter (9), Aiden O’Neill (6), Landon Roberts (5), Malachi Somes (3), Riley Lawless (2), Makai Myles (2), and Easton Green (2) also scored, while Davin Houston brought defensive heat.

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