Sean Toomey-Stout tossed in 12 points Saturday as Coupeville clashed with The Bush School. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
They are a team in transition. Full of promise but searching for the perfect fit.
Somewhat young, largely inexperienced, learning on the fly, the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball team has moments when everything clicks, and moments when … they don’t.
Saturday night was a classic example, as the Wolves, even playing without their lone senior, came out focused and clicking on all cylinders, set their foes back on their heels, but couldn’t quite complete the full knock-out.
Unable to stop the suddenly nuclear Kai Osaka, who poured in 19 of his game-high 26 points after the halftime break, Coupeville saw a winnable game slip away, falling 49-30 to The Bush School.
The home non-conference loss drops the Wolves to 0-2.
In the moment, it stings a bit, as Coupeville led from the opening tip until midway through the second quarter, and was still down just four at the half.
But the effort shown, the hustle and desire, and the willingness to learn and improve, provides some salve for Wolf coach Brad Sherman.
“We played a lot tougher (than in our first game) and rebounded the ball a lot better,” he said. “That was very nice to see.
“We came out really strongly in the first quarter and really controlled the beginning of the game,” Sherman said. “The challenge for us is to stay patient in our offense and sustain that patience.”
Coupeville opened the game minus senior captain Dane Lucero, who was earning scholarship money on a visit to Washington State University.
The plus side was the return of big man Gavin Knoblich, who rolled his ankle before the first game, and point guard Jered Brown, who sat out much of the second half against Oak Harbor after being drilled in the chest.
With Brown directing traffic, the Wolves came out firing.
Mason Grove netted a picture-perfect three-ball from the right side to open the game, then Sean Toomey-Stout went to work on both ends of the floor.
“The Torpedo” slapped home a layup, then juked his way through the paint for another bucket, wrapped around a defensive gem in which he climbed to the ceiling to reject a Bush shot into the parking lot.
The visiting Blazers, while solid on the boards, didn’t boast any players remotely capable of standing eye-to-eye with their coach, 6-foot-9 former U-Dub great and NBA vet Steve Hawes.
That left lanky Wolf junior Ulrik Wells plenty of opportunities to use his 6’4 frame to his advantage, and he responded smartly.
A lil’ bank shot off the glass and two note-perfect free throws, set up by a rebound hauled down in traffic, gave Wells four points in the first quarter and sent Coupeville to the first break up 11-8.
Wells wasn’t done, throwing down an explosive block to open the second quarter, spiking the ball like a volleyball kill artist, setting off the Wolf student section into howls of approval.
Unfortunately for Coupeville, it was right after that when things started to slip away a bit.
The Wolves, who had been netting most of their shots, hit a period where the net was unforgiving, eking out just four points in the second quarter.
A put-back by freshman Hawthorne Wolfe and two charity shots from Knoblich kept CHS close, but a Bush basket off a give-and-go right before the buzzer hurt a bit.
Not as much as the start of the third quarter stung, however.
Osaka hit three-balls on three consecutive trips down the floor to open the second half, and before you could say “ouch,” a four-point game soon slid into dangerous 15-point territory.
To its credit, Coupeville didn’t break, scoring the final five points of the third and four of the first six in the fourth, twice pulling back within eight.
Toomey-Stout, in his second game back since missing his sophomore season with a football injury, was a rampaging wild man, forcing the action by slashing into the paint and using his unique left-handed shooting style to bedevil Bush.
Which is why it hurt so badly when the refs, apparently not interested in letting the game turn back into a thriller, whistled “The Torpedo” for his fifth, and final foul, sending him to the bench to be a vocal fan, and not a sweet-shootin’ savior.
Bush used a 13-2 surge to close the game, as the scoreboard turned deceptive at the end, allowing anyone wandering by for the first time to have the wrong impression about how close the game seemed for much of its duration.
Coupeville spread its offense among six players, with Toomey-Stout’s team-high 12 backed up by six from Wolfe and five from Wells.
Grove’s three came courtesy his long trey, while Knoblich and Davison rounded out the scoring with two points apiece.
Brown, who stayed in the gym working on his shot long after the crowd had vanished, ran the offense with style, Jacobi Pilgrim fought the good war down in the trenches and Jean Lund-Olsen showed off his wheels while shadowing Bush guards.
