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Archive for the ‘Boys Basketball’ Category

Balanced scoring, sweet victory

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Liam Blas scored his first varsity points Friday night as Coupeville scorched La Conner. (Jackie Saia photos)

It was a good old-fashioned beatdown, in every way.

Squaring off with La Conner Friday night, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball squad skipped the three-ball, racking up one of its best offensive showings of the season while relying on two-point field goals and free throws.

Leading from start to finish, the Wolves romped to a 64-30 road win, capturing their third victory in their last four games.

It’s the third time this season Coupeville has put up 60+ points in a contest, and the first time they have done so without the three-ball.

Instead, the Wolves made 24 field goals and rippled the nets on 16 of 23 charity shots.

Brad Sherman’s squad is now 1-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League action, 4-6 overall, with a busy week ahead.

The Wolves travel to Auburn Adventist Academy this coming Monday, before hosting Darrington Friday and Napavine Saturday.

They’ll head into that three-game stretch coming off of a solid team-wide performance, with eight of the 10 players who saw floor time at La Conner racking up points.

Coupeville blew out to a 19-6 lead by the first break, before really ramping things up with a 22-4 run in the second quarter.

Up 41-10 at the half, the Wolves got plenty of playing time for everyone in the second half, while coasting in with 13-10 and 10-10 performances across the game’s final two quarters.

Senior big man Camden Glover dominated, throwing down a game-high 18 points to pace CHS, while sweet-shooting sophomore Carson Grove netted 13 and senior Chase Anderson banked in 12.

Carson Grove drives to the bucket.

Aiden O’Neill (6), Liam Blas (5), Davin Houston (4), Malachi Somes (4), and Riley Lawless (2) also scored, with Nathan Coxsey and Easton Green rounding out the rotation.

On a night when the Wolves shared the scoring load across the board, three players achieved personal milestones.

Anderson, who now has 765 career points, slides past Hunter Hammer (755) into 18th place all-time for a CHS boys’ program which launched in 1917, and is hot on the heels of Barry Brown (769) and Jack Elzinga (770).

Meanwhile, Glover cracks the 200-point club and sits with 213.

And Blas, a sophomore who has been relentless on the boards for the Wolves, dropped in his first varsity points.

He’s the 433rd Coupeville boy who I’ve been able to document doing so, and with his five-point performance, already finds himself in a tie for #397 all-time.

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Wolf JV boys thrash Braves

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Jayden McManus knocked down 17 points Friday night in a big road win. (Julie Wheat photo)

Jayden McManus was locked into seek-and-destroy mode.

As were his teammates as well.

Sparked by a game-high 17 points from the three-ball-happy McManus Friday, the Coupeville High School JV boys’ basketball squad crushed host La Conner 52-32 in a wire-to-wire win.

The road victory lifts the young Wolves to 3-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 4-5 overall, and has them on a two-game winning streak.

Next up is another trip, this one to Auburn Adventist Academy Monday, before CHS welcomes Darrington to Whidbey Island next Friday for a league clash.

Squaring off with La Conner, the Wolves came out ready to rumble, jumping out to a 16-3 lead at the first break.

McManus poured in six points in the opening frame, one of five Coupeville players to score in the game-busting assault on the hoop, and things were well underway.

While La Conner hung tough to battle to a 9-9 tie in the second quarter, the Wolves added to their lead in the second half, outscoring the Braves 12-8 and 15-12 across the final two quarters.

CHS hit four shots from behind the three-point arc, with McManus ringing up three of those successful splashes.

Liam Lawson added the fourth trey and he, Josh Stockdale, and Nathan Coxsey each scored six to back up McManus and Khanor Jump, who knocked down 12 points.

Brian Thompson (2), Jaden Flores Garcia (2), and Trent Thule (1) rounded out the offense, with Chris Zenz and Ayden Warren also seeing floor time for the Wolves.

The Wolves listen as coach Craig Anderson lays out some strategy. (Jackie Saia photo)

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Son of a Wolf, star in his own right

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Xavier Ochoa

The Coupeville Sports “bump” is real.

Maybe.

Mere weeks after being featured on the #1 prep athletic blog in the state (prove it’s not!), Oak Harbor High School senior Xavier Ochoa is pulling in the honors.

The Wildcat hoops star, whose mom Lexi (Boyer) Ochoa once roamed the hardwood for Coupeville, was tabbed as an Athlete of the Week winner Thursday by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.

Xavier, whose dad Danny also wore the purple and gold back in the day, received the honor after racking up 45 points, 26 rebounds, 12 assists, and four steals across two recent games.

Oak Harbor, a 3A school which plays in a highly competitive 1A/2A/3A league featuring state basketball heavyweights such as Lynden Christian, Anacortes, and Lynden, is 3-8 on the season.

In the WIAA writeup, Ochoa was hailed for his “all-around game and leadership.

“(His) consistency, court vision, and defensive tenacity make him a complete player and a key contributor to his team’s success.”

Each week during the school year, the WIAA honors a male and female athlete from each classification (4A, 3A, 2A, 1A, 2B, 1B).

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Shooting woes haunt CHS boys

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Aiden O’Neill left it all on the floor Tuesday in a rivalry rumble. (Jackie Saia photo)

Who shrank the rim?

Suffering through its worst collective shooting night of the season Tuesday, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team ultimately had no answers for a feisty Friday Harbor crew.

With shot after shot rimming out and skipping away, the Wolves were unable to push their winning streak to three games, instead falling 46-34.

The loss, coming in the first home game of 2026, knocks CHS to 0-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 3-6 overall, with a trip Friday to La Conner offering a chance for a bounce-back.

Friday Harbor entered the night with an 0-10 record, though two of those defeats were by just a single bucket.

Regardless of their record, the Wolverines always come hard with a physical, hustling style of play, and Tuesday was no different.

The visitors bolted out to a quick 7-0 lead, as Coupeville couldn’t get a shot to go down for the first four-and-a-half minutes.

The Wolves finally broke through on a three-ball off of the fingertips of Chase Anderson but still trailed 11-5 at the first break and looked out of sync.

Things seemed to get better — a LOT better — in the second quarter, as senior gunner Aiden O’Neill ripped off three consecutive treys, before Anderson pushed CHS into the lead for the first time at 17-15 thanks to yet another three-ball.

Coupeville netted five shots from beyond the arc in the first half but didn’t get its first old-fashioned field goal until Anderson powered his way through the paint for a three-point play the hard way with just nine seconds left in the half.

Friday Harbor responded immediately, however, banking in a runner right before the halftime buzzer to carry a 21-20 lead into the break.

Whatever positive mojo the Wolves had going in the waning moments of the first half evaporated fairly quickly in the third quarter, with another string of shots clanking off the rim or popping back out after starting to go down.

The visitors surged to a 30-22 lead, Coupeville clawed back to within 33-28 at the end of the third after key buckets from Carson Grove and Davin Houston, then Friday Harbor pulled away for good early in the final frame.

A Wolverine three-ball that banked in off the glass a millisecond before a 24-second shot clock violation was a particularly nasty killer, blunting any lingering hopes of a comeback for the hometown hardwood heroes.

Coupeville’s scoring was limited to just four players — its smallest total of the season — with Anderson leading the way with 18 while O’Neill knocked down 11.

Houston (3) and Grove (2) wrapped things up, with Liam Blas, Riley Lawless, Camden Glover, and Malachi Somes rounding out the rotation.

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Liam Lawson has got that killer gene

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Liam Lawson, draining game winners and taking names. (Julie Wheat photo)

It’s in his DNA.

Coupeville High School freshman Liam Lawson comes from a family full of cold-blooded hardwood assassins, and he’s more than ready to keep the tradition alive.

Drilling a pair of fourth-quarter three-balls Tuesday, including the game winner with just a few ticks left on the clock, Lawson sparked the Wolf JV boys’ basketball team to a 37-34 win over visiting Friday Harbor to create the first great prairie athletic memory of 2026.

The win, Coupeville’s only one in four contests against the Wolverines on this day, lifts the CHS young guns to 2-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 3-5 overall.

It also writes another successful chapter in a tale which has warmed the hearts of Central Whidbey hoops fans for years.

Back in the day, it was Liam’s mom, “Killer Kassie” (Lawson) O’Neil who dined, more than once, on the sweet, sweet tears of the private school prima donnas, shafting King’s with multiple buzzer-beaters.

Equally dangerous were aunts Katie Smith and Kayla Lawson, and great-grandpa Dale Sherman wasn’t too shabby himself.

Jump forward to 2026, and the game was knotted at 34-34 with the ball in the hands of the Wolves and the clock ticking down.

Enter Liam, who hit nothing but the bottom of the net, setting off a (somewhat) premature celebration, as CHS coaches implored their players to stop hugging and get back on defense as the buzzer hadn’t yet sounded.

Friday Harbor didn’t have an answer, however, and the win was assured, capping a game in which CHS led at every major juncture.

Lawson and Jayden McManus combined to net 10 points in the first quarter as Coupeville built a 13-10 lead, and the Wolves stretched their advantage to 25-15 by the half.

The final 16 minutes were a bit more of an adventure, as Friday Harbor sliced the deficit back to 31-25 through three quarters, before forcing the late tie.

McManus finished with a team-high 14 points, while Lawson rattled the rims for 12.

Khanor Jump (6), Josh Stockdale (4), and Brian Thompson (1) also scored, with Trent Thule, Ayden Warren, and Chris Zenz rounding out the rotation.

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