Joey Lippo scored a season-high 10 points Wednesday in a come-from-behind win over Concrete. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Sooner or later, the shots were going to start dropping.
Coupeville was getting too many good looks, too many prime opportunities Wednesday night for things not to start going its way at some point.
And then, after 10 minutes of the rim playing unfairly with the Wolves, suddenly a love story blossomed and CHS broke free to bury Concrete 62-47 in a non-conference boys basketball game.
The win, which comes as the Wolves head into a nine-day break between games, lifts them to 3-5 on the season.
Wednesday night can be broken down into three acts.
In the opening act, Coupeville was quicker and more aggressive than the visitors, but some crisp Concrete passing and the Wolves own cold shooting touch left them trailing 14-8 early in the second quarter.
Act two, which began with a Hunter Smith free throw, started to pick up steam with Hunter Downes putting a rebound back up and in, then really got going when Ethan Spark drilled a rainbow of a three-ball, was the real crowd pleaser.
Covering most of the second quarter, all of the third and the first two minutes of the fourth, that act saw the Wolves go on an epic 41-10 run to turn a six-point deficit into a 25-point lead.
Included in that surge was Coupeville’s best third quarter of the season, a 19-5 delight in which sophomore Mason Grove netted a trio of treys.
Whatever CHS coach Brad Sherman said (or didn’t say) in the locker room at halftime worked beautifully, as the Wolves nimbly avoided their biggest downfall this season — third quarter woes.
Our final act, covering six minutes on the score clock, and probably an hour on the real clock, was a story of endless free throws, as Concrete chipped the lead back down to 11, before the Wolves emphatically ended things.
The grace note came on a breakaway, when Hunter Smith, wheeling and dealing in the open court, found Gavin Knoblich running on his side, and the sophomore drained a pull-up jumper for his first-ever varsity points.
And when I say there were a lot of free throws down the stretch, I’m not kidding, as 22 of the 45 points scored in the fourth quarter came via the charity stripe.
Both teams netted 11 freebie shots apiece in the fourth, after combining for just nine points at the line in the first three quarters.
For the game, Coupeville had the hotter hand, hitting 17-21 to Concrete’s 14-23.
Concrete staked itself to a 9-6 lead at the first break, then stretched the lead to 14-8, before the Wolves finally found their shooting touch.
Four different CHS players scored during a 16-2 run to end the half, with Joey Lippo, fighting a cold, sending the student section into hysterics when he netted a three-ball from the left corner with less than a second to play.
Grove’s long-range shooting was the highlight in the third quarter, while Lippo went for three the hard way in the final period and Ulrik Wells netted his first varsity points on a pair of late free throws.
Smith paced the Wolves with 20, rattling home six points each in the second, third and fourth quarters.
His basket of the night came on a steal and ensuing coast-to-coast run in the fourth, but his most historical points arrived on another steal and layup late in the second quarter.
That bucket sent Smith over the 600-point barrier, making him only the 38th Wolf (30 boys, eight girls) to achieve the feat.
With 614 points, he passed Mike Syreen (594), Brian Miller (597), Joe Whitney (601), Greg White (604) and John O’Grady (611) Wednesday and now sits #27 all-time on the boys basketball career scoring list.
Ethan Spark banged home 13 points in support of Smith, while Lippo (10), Grove (9), Downes (6), Knoblich (2) and Wells (2) also scored.
Jered Brown, Jacobi Pilgrim and Dane Lucero also saw floor time for the Wolves, who return to action Dec. 29 with a home game against Orcas Island.
