Wolf freshman Jered Brown made an auspicious debut Tuesday night. (John Fisken photo)
This could be the start of something big.
Proving he’s ready for the spotlight from moment one, Coupeville High School freshman Jered Brown wasted no time.
Making his varsity debut Tuesday in the fourth quarter of an opening night loss to visiting Blaine, the Wolf gunner touched the ball for the first time and promptly drilled a three-bomb bomb from the right side.
It was the one moment the crowd truly went bonkers all night, and provided a ray of sunshine on an otherwise stormy evening.
Brown also slid a pair of free-throws through the twines, but even his perfection with the rock wasn’t enough to save Coupeville.
Hammered by a 22-0 run in the second quarter, the Wolves lost their grasp on a once-close game and fell 72-28.
CHS, which returns just two varsity players in Gabe Wynn and Hunter Smith, looked and played like a squad still adjusting to each other and the faster, more physical style of varsity basketball.
The Borderites, a deep, aggressive 2A team, won the battle in the trenches — hitting the boards with a fury — and on the outskirts, dropping seven treys, primarily on kick-outs to wide-open guys in the corners.
Coupeville actually led early (really early) when Wynn knocked down a pull-up jumper to kick off his senior campaign.
A bucket from Brian Shank, on a sweet roll to the hoop on which he sliced through a pack of Blaine defenders, knotted things at 4-4 and gave hope that the sizable opening night crowd was in for a fight to the finish.
Unfortunately things got away from the Wolves in a hurry.
Blaine dropped in a pair of three-balls to stretch the lead out to 14-7 after the first eight minutes of play, then went into lock-down mode in a second quarter that was brutally efficient.
In between a pair of free-throws from Ariah Bepler and a bucket in the paint from Steven Cope, the Borderites ripped off a game-busting run of 22 consecutive points.
After hitting three straight bombs from behind the arc, Blaine made off with back-to-back running layups off of steals, as they used their full-court press to utterly confound the inexperienced Wolves.
Things didn’t get much better after the break, as frequent steals and treys propelled the Borderites on another run, this time to a tune of 24-7.
Smith provided all the offense for the Wolves in the quarter, dropping in seven of his team-high 11 points.
The highlight came on a play where he juked his defender out of his shoes, then pulled back and nailed a soft trey from the top.
Coupeville made a stand in the final quarter, “winning” the fourth 10-9 using a sharp eye at the charity stripe and Brown’s smooth touch.
While he wasn’t a fan of the final score, CHS coach Anthony Smith knows he has a team that is very much a work in progress.
“They (Blaine) came to play. They can take you out of your game, and we have some guys who haven’t played at this level before. It’s a different game,” he said.
“It was a good thing it was a non-conference game,” Anthony Smith added. “We’ll watch some film and get back in the gym and get ready for Sultan Friday. We will get better.”
Hunter Smith (11), Wynn (5) and Brown (5) combined for 21 of Coupeville’s 28 points, while Shank added three and Cope and Bepler chipped in with two apiece.
Joey Lippo hit the boards hard in his return to the court after a year off, while Hunter Downes and Cameron Toomey-Stout contributed with scrappy defense and hustle.
JV falls:
Much like the varsity, the young guns, who have 12 freshmen on a 13-man roster, are a work in progress.
After Sean Toomey-Stout banged home a jumper from the right side, the Wolves were within 5-4 and looked to be right in the thick of things.
Then came a 26-0 run by the Borderites, stretching over chunks of the first and second quarters, and things got progressively bleaker en route to a 67-17 defeat.
Toomey-Stout paced CHS with four points, also banking in a silky runner, while Jacobi Pacquette-Pilgrim (3), Brown (3), Ulrik Wells (2), Koa Davison (2), Nikolai Lyngra (2) and Aiden Juras (1) all chipped in.
Mason Grove, Elliott Johnson, Aram Leyva and Kyle Rockwell all saw playing time as well.
