Jeff Stone’s basketball scoring records still stand nearly 50 years after he hung up his CHS uniform.
There are records, and then there are RECORDS.
As I research Coupeville High School’s basketball history, one season in particular stands out.
It’s been 47 years since Jeff Stone played his final game in a Wolf uniform — a 63-54 loss to Kittitas Mar. 5, 1970 at the state tourney.
His totals that night: 27 points and 24 rebounds.
Nearly five decades have passed since then, and yet what he accomplished in his senior season remains as astounding today as it was back then.
Playing at a time before the three-point shot was a thing, the lanky 6-foot-4 gunner, who would go on to be a college hoops star, before a long run as a coach, teacher and administrator at Oak Harbor High School, was unstoppable.
Over the course of 24 games in the 1969-1970 season (when CHS went 20-4 and became the first Whidbey Island basketball team to win a district title), Stone dropped in 644 points.
He averaged 26.8 a night, while NEVER failing to score in double figures, as the Wolves poured in 1,836 points (76.5), breaking 100 points four time.
A 114-48 win over Watson-Groen stands as the greatest scoring night in CHS history, boys or girls.
To put Stone’s 644 points in perspective, the next highest single-season Wolf performance I have found on the boys side of the board was Pete Petrov’s 442 in 25 games during the 1995-1996 season.
And Petrov both had the trey at his disposal, and used it quite often.
Oak Harbor’s single-season scoring mark is 469 from Manny Martucci in 1993 — a season I covered while at the Whidbey News-Times.
Stone, wearing “short” shorts and getting his points two at a time, never went below 14 points as a senior, and topped out with a school-record 48 in the biggest game of his career.
That performance came in the district title game against longtime rival Darrington, in a game played in front of 2,200 fans (according to newspaper articles of the day).
He earned every one of the points, as well, hitting 17 of 28 from the field and a crisp 14 of 16 from the charity stripe.
And, while Stone’s 48 is one off of the 49 netted by Oak Harbor’s Pat McGreevey in a 1953 game, let’s also note the Wolf star exited the title game with a full 90 seconds left to play.
If Coupeville coach Bob Barker doesn’t pull him early enough to take a curtain call, 50 is a certainty and 60 is not out of the question.
As I continue to go through newspaper articles, chase down score-books and forgotten stat sheets and permanently cross my eyes, I’m sure I’ll find a lot of highlights — some expected, some surprises.
But I have no doubt. Nothing I find is going to stand up to Stone’s superb swan song.
By the numbers:
Regular season:
Neah Bay — 41 points (102-42 win)
Quilcene — 36 (74-31 win)
Quilcene — 14 (71-40 win)
Joyce — 19 (67-20 win)
Watson-Groen — 38 (114-48 win)
Darrington — 37 (67-50 win)
Joyce — 27 (103-29 win)
Clallam Bay — 16 (70-49 win)
Orcas Island — 30 (95-58 win)
Friday Harbor — 18 (64-38 win)
Skykomish — 19 (64-59 win)
Clallam Bay — 30 (71-40 win)
La Conner — 18 (53-49 loss)
Watson-Groen — 35 (86-29 win)
Darrington — 24 (76-52 win)
Orcas Island — 16 (84-49 win)
Friday Harbor — 21 (82-46 win)
Skykomish — 31 (78-76 win)
Bellevue Christian — 26 (106-46 win)
La Conner — 23 (54-50 loss)
Districts:
Skykomish — 19 (74-58 win)
Darrington — 48 (84-62 win)
State:
Ritzville — 31 (63-51 loss)
Kittitas — 27 (63-54 loss)
