Mikey Robinett drilled the biggest shot Tuesday as Coupeville Middle School basketball fought back to hold its own with visiting Sultan. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
The day got progressively better.
Coupeville Middle School boys basketball had a rough opening act Tuesday, then turned it on to net a stunning comeback and a blowout win in acts two and three, respectively.
The action as it unfolded in front of fans camped out on the hardest bleachers ever built by human hands:
7th grade varsity:
Sultan’s younger squad won a 6th grade title last year, and it’s easy to see why.
Using an aggressive, trapping defense, jumping on every loose ball, and combining bad hair choices with sometimes worse attitudes, the Turks rolled to a 48-11 win.
The loss drops Coupeville to 1-2 on the season.
Give credit where credit is due.
A fair amount of Sultan’s players conduct themselves with the kind of attitude that might start a rumble at the next level — and almost did Tuesday, when one ref stopped the game cold to lecture a Wolf and Turk who were throwing elbows, knees and smack talk around in fine fashion.
But, underneath the bluster (and some truly atrocious hairstyles), the Turks are solid players. They play with purpose, intent and an admirable chip on their collective shoulders.
That showed, as they bolted out to a 14-0 lead after one quarter, before triggering a running clock early in the third.
Coupeville didn’t break through until Nick Guay drained a jumper a minute into the second quarter, and by then the Wolves were down 17-0 and the game had slipped away.
Logan Downes, who came in to the game averaging 16 points a night, fought valiantly through the swarming defense, pulling down boards and muscling his way back inside for a team-high six points.
Zane Oldenstadt and Guay added a bucket apiece, while Cole White capped Coupeville’s limited offensive performance by slipping a free throw through the net.
7th grade JV:
Playing for the first time this season, the JV fell behind early, then roared back during a frantic final two minutes to earn an 11-11 tie which felt very much like a win.
With the game limited to two quarters, Coupeville stayed close in the early going thanks to a slashing drive to the hoop by Mikey Robinett and a free throw from William Davidson.
Then the basket turned unforgiving towards the Wolves, as one shot after another rimmed out, allowing Sultan to slowly, but surely, creep out to an imposing 11-3 lead.
If the Turks thought they were safe, they were sadly mistaken, however.
The final two minutes was an exercise in pure domination, of the young Wolves reaching down low and finding something maybe even they didn’t realize they had inside themselves.
Robinett, working the boards aggressively, knocked down a put-back to give CMS its first points after a seven-minute dry spell, and his teammates responded.
First up was Davidson, who curled up from underneath a Turk, ripped a rebound free from his unsuspecting rival, and promptly banked the ball home.
With the Wolf faithful beginning to rock the bleachers, Coupeville flipped the ball to Justin Wilkinson.
The cousin of former CHS hoops star Courtney Boyd, he made his hardwood debut a winning one.
Taking a pass at the top of the key, the pint-sized but scrappy Wilkinson sliced through the Sultan defense, rolling hard to the hoop, then lobbing up a one-hander that caught the top of the glass and splashed home with a happy lil’ plop.
In complete disarray at this point, Sultan cracked under the pressure, unable to hit a shot, and unable to stop the Wolves.
Or stop Robinett, in particular.
With the clock madly ticking down, a CMS shot skimmed the rim and headed off to the left, only to be snagged out of mid-air by the Wolf banger.
Whirling smartly around, Robinett slipped past a stumbling defender, then drained a soft jumper, turning the offensive rebound into a game-tying bucket.
Sultan, in complete meltdown, was unable to even get a final shot off, letting the final seconds tick away as Coupeville threw five amped-up and emotional defenders into the fray.
Thanks to a fairly stupid rule which prevents middle school JV teams from playing overtime, the game ended in the kind of tie you normally only have to endure at soccer games.
But there was little doubt as to which team felt like it won, as the Wolves whooped, hollered and mussed Robinett’s hair, while the Turks stood glumly waiting for the high-five line.
8th grade varsity:
With the atmosphere still electric, Coupeville’s older team hit the floor and put together its best game of the season.
After grabbing the lead midway through the first quarter, the Wolves turned an early thriller into a runaway, bolting out to a 24-point lead before coasting in for the 44-29 victory.
The win lifts CMS to 1-2 on the season.
In the early going, it looked like the finale to a three-game night might be a nail-biter. But looks are deceiving.
Coupeville snatched the lead for good when Ty Hamilton snared a rebound and turned it into a three-point play the hard way, knocking down the bucket and a free throw after being hammered while shooting.
A 7-3 lead after one quarter stretched into a 20-11 bulge at the half, with a sweet running scoop shot from Kevin Partida and a breakaway bucket by Dominic Coffman getting things started.
After that, the second quarter belonged to the rampaging Alex Murdy.
Hair arranged in a series of knots, the ice-cold assassin turned his Turk rivals inside out.
One bucket came on a coast-to-coast run, but only after he skidded to a stop two steps from the bucket, then dipped around a Sultan defender, creating just enough space to knock down a beauty.
Toss in a three-ball from long distance, a pair of free throws and another coast-to-coast jaunt, and Murdy was feeling it as he and his teammates sprinted to the locker room at the break, huge smiles in place.
Things just got sweeter in the third quarter, as five Wolves scored during a 19-7 surge.
Murdy still had the hot touch, scoring five, including another long trey, but if he was toasty, Hamilton was molten lava.
He started the half off with a three-ball from the top, and liked that so much he hit another one from virtually the same spot a minute later.
Packaged around a swooping layup, the treys gave Hamilton a chance to outscore Sultan by himself, leading to him shrugging at the audience the same way Michael Jordan once did after torching the Blazers in the 1992 NBA finals.
And yes, that still haunts my dreams… But, anyways.
Back in modern-day reality, Coupeville spread its offense between seven players, with three hitting season-highs and three netting their first points of the season.
Murdy singed the nets for 17, Hamilton banked home 11, Coffman drilled seven, and Levi Pulliam swished a long three-ball to kick off the fourth quarter.
Alex Wasik, Josh Upchurch and Kevin Partida added a bucket apiece, with the first two of that trio (and Pulliam) getting into the scorer’s column for the first time.
Rounding out the active Wolf players, Mitchell Hall might not have scored, but he was invaluable, crashing the boards and kicking the ball to open teammates, triggering numerous CMS buckets.
