Sage Downes pumped in 13 Thursday, as the CMS 8th graders rolled to a huge win. (John Fisken photo)
Two gyms, two teams in perfect harmony.
Heading into the holiday break on a huge high, the Coupeville Middle School boys’ basketball squads shellacked visiting Chimacum Thursday in games where teamwork was the key word of the day.
The 7th grade Wolves, getting buckets from all 11 players who saw action, strolled to a 55-28 win, while the 8th graders, powered by a season-high 31 from Jake Mitten, crushed the Cowboys 57-29.
The victory was the first of the season for the older CMS team (now 1-4), while the young guns improved to 3-2 and remain a spotless 3-0 in games played in their own gym.
Coupeville won’t return to action until Jan. 5, taking a full three-week sabbatical from games at the halfway point of its 10-game season.
The CMS 7th graders were missing top scorer Caleb Meyer, on a family trip to New Zealand, but everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) stepped up to plug the holes.
The Wolves came out aggressive, flustering the Cowboy ball-handlers behind Connor “Fastest Arms in the West” Barton, repeatedly making off with steals that they turned into breakaway buckets.
In fact, the only thing which kept the score halfway close (for a bit, at least) was CMS got a little too excited and slapped a string of running lay-ins off the glass too hard.
If the Wolves had found their groove just a hair earlier, the first quarter lead wouldn’t have been a modest 11-6.
Barton spiked the game’s opening bucket in 1.2 seconds, sliding through a pair of Cowboys to snatch the opening tip.
Once the orb was on his fingertips, he jammed the gas pedal through the floor, shot to the hoop and slapped home a wicked bank-shot that buckled the Chimacum coach’s knees.
The Cowboy head man didn’t have much better luck after that, as Barton and Hawthorne Wolfe were relentless on D, picking pockets and feeding their teammates for breakaway buckets.
The few times Chimacum was able to scramble back and set up on defense, the Wolves used their tall trees (Logan Martin, Xavier Murdy and Cody Roberts) to score inside.
Roberts tossed in a soft hook in the paint that brought back memories of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (at least to fans older than Roberts), while Martin, channeling the advice dad Bob gave him pre-game, went hard at the hoop on a consistent basis.
His best bucket came midway through the second.
Grady Rickner stripped the ball, spun, fired ahead to rampaging ball o’ fire Aiden Burdge, then pumped his fist in agreement as Burdge dropped a picture-perfect pass into Martin’s hands for a running lay-up.
Murdy and Rickner controlled the third — slender assassin Murdy channeling prime-of-his-career Dennis Rodman on the boards, while his teammate slashed to the hoop for six of his team-high 10.
Chimacum had no quit, hitting a truly spectacular (and pretty dang lucky) three-ball from the parking lot to kick off the fourth, but Coupeville never bent.
With a loose ball bouncing into the back court, Burdge sent older sister Kylie into (restrained) hysterics, winning a 1-on-1 race to the orb.
Grabbing it with one hand, while on the move, he shifted the ball to his other hand in the time it took him to take one extra-large hop, and knocked the runner down, making his siblings’ trip home from college an extra-special one.
Everything was clicking in the game’s final minutes, with Daniel Barajas operating the point while working the ball like a yo-yo and the Wolves continuing to set up almost every bucket with a well-placed pass.
With 10 of his 11 active players in the scoring column, CHS coach Randy King put his arm around Jonathan Carroll while the two stood along the sideline.
Looking down at the young gunner, with the eyes that had lit a fire under so many Wolves in the past 25+ years blazing (at a relatively soft temperature) King nodded his head.
“Go get me a bucket, son,” is what I’m imagining he said.
In reality, the gym was too loud to pick up his words, but the intent was undeniable.
Boom.
Barajas whipped a pass to Carroll, who spun, and promptly melted the minds of all gathered by not only hitting the basket, but knocking down a gorgeous bank-shot from well outside his normal range.
The gym went bonkers, Carroll elevated in the air like older brother Mitchell doing the high jump and King softly arched his eyebrows and nodded — which for him is tantamount to a screaming fit of hysterics.
By the time scorekeeper-to-the-stars McKenzie Bailey was done tallying up all the buckets, Rickner finished as high man with 10.
Hot on his heels was Barton (9), Martin (8), Murdy (6), Wolfe (4), Burdge (4), Barajas (4) and Gabe Shaw (4).
Roberts, Logan Wertz and Carroll rounded out the Wolf attack with a bucket apiece.
Mitten can’t be stopped:
Playing at the same time in the big gym, the 8th graders pounded the ball inside to their big weapon, and the nephew of former CHS hoops legend Jason McFadyen responded with a vengeance.
Hitting from all angles, Mitten scorched the twine for 13 in the first minutes, as the Wolves roared out to a 17-5 margin at the first break.
Coupeville didn’t let up, outscoring the Cowboys 30-8 across the second and third quarter, decisively plowing their foes, who boasted a bench twice the size of CMS.
Mitten’s 31 were the most scored by any Wolf this season, middle or high school, boy or girl, while Sage Downes swished 13 to back him up.
Daniel Olson banked home five, Alex Jimenez knocked in three, Ben Smith and Dakota Eck each swooped in for a bucket and Tian Yu swished a free throw for his first point of the season.
