Coupeville Sports

Davin Houston torched the nets for a varsity career-high 19 points Friday afternoon. (Julie Wheat photo)

A strong finish. Balanced scoring. Better than average free throw shooting.

There were a lot of positives Friday afternoon for the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team as it played its first road game of the year.

Unfortunately for the Wolves, there was just one negative — a cold start — and it proved to be too much to overcome in a 63-56 loss on Orcas Island.

With the defeat to the undefeated (3-0) Vikings, the Wolves slip to 0-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 1-4 overall, with a home game against Mount Vernon Christian set for Tuesday.

Friday’s rumble featured the varsity boys playing first, and whether it was the long ferry ride or something else, Coupeville wasn’t clicking at first, falling behind 18-4 through one quarter of play.

Orcas sank four of its five three-balls in the opening frame, with Viking gunner Joe Stevens nailing three as he singed the nets for 13 of his team-high 19 points to set the early pace.

After that, however, the Wolves found their rhythm, outscoring their hosts 52-45 the rest of the way.

Coupeville cut the deficit down to 31-22 at the half, saw it get nudged back out to 45-34 after three quarters, then poured in 22 points across the game’s final eight minutes.

CHS didn’t get to the free throw line as often as Orcas did, but shot with much more consistency once there, sinking 17-22 attempts while the Vikings clanked their way to a 14-29 performance.

Brad Sherman’s squad also had the kind of balanced scoring any coach likes to see, with three different players landing in double figures.

Davin Houston, who had 11 varsity points to his credit coming into the contest, went off for a game-high 19, scoring in every frame and doing it in a variety of ways.

The Wolf junior knocked down a pair of three-balls, as did senior Chase Anderson, who had 13 points, while Camden Glover banged home 16 while controlling the paint.

Malachi Somes (4), Riley Lawless (2), and Aiden O’Neill (2) also tallied points, with Liam Blas, Carson Grove, and Easton Green seeing floor time.

With his 13 points, Anderson gets to 676 and moves from #26 to #24 on the CHS boys career scoring chart, passing ’70s legend Foster Faris (668) and ’90s big man Virgil Roehl (674).