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Beat the buzzer, win the Island!!

January 23, 2016 by David Svien

Matthew Kelley (John Fisken photos)

Matthew Kelley lets fly. (John Fisken photos)

Boom!

Matthew Kelley plunged the dagger in big-time Saturday, as he and his Coupeville SWISH 7th grade boys’ basketball squad pulled off a rally in the final seconds to stun arch-rival South Whidbey.

Kelley scored the game’s final five points, including a buzzer-beating three-ball, to lift the Wolves to a 24-21 win.

The victory improved Coupeville to 2-0 heading into a showdown next weekend with a very strong Mount Vernon Mayhem squad.

After leading for much of the game Saturday, the Wolves fell behind at the worst possible moment.

Down 21-19 with 36 seconds to play, they needed big plays and got them.

Michael Laska, the mighty mite, ripped down a rebound to give the ball back to Coupeville.

After Kelley dropped a quick runner in the key to knot things at 21, the Wolves pressed on the ensuing in-bounds play and disrupted South Whidbey on back-to-back chances.

On the first one, Sage Downes knocked the ball out of bounds.

On the second one, the Falcons threw the ball away, the basketball zinging over the head of a player who turned and clasped his head in frustration.

With the ball in their hands and five ticks on the clock, Coupeville gave the ball to Kelley and he charged straight up-court.

South Whidbey went back on its heels and Kelley went straight up and drilled the wide-open trey, looking a whole lot like Wolf legend Ian Smith when he did the same thing in a high school varsity game at Langley five years ago.

Both shots were game-winners and both shots induced tears in Falcon Nation — a beautiful combo for Wolf fans everywhere.

Kelley paced Coupeville with 13 while Jake Mitten dropped in six.

Hawthorne Wolfe and Daniel Olson added a bucket apiece while Connor Barton rounded out the scoring with a free-throw.

“The boys all played strong,” said Coupeville coach Pat Kelley. “We were just really off until the very end, when it mattered most.”

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Dare to be great!!

January 23, 2016 by David Svien

All you rinfo in one easy-to-find place. (Photo courtesy Susan Georges)

All your info in one easy-to-find place. (Photo courtesy Suzan Georges)

Want to put some zip into your dribbling skills?

Chris Hyppa might be your answer.

A former high school coach who has gone on to work with NBA and WNBA players such as Avery Bradley and Courtney Vandersloot, he holds skills clinics across the country.

One of those clinics is set for Coupeville High School Feb. 27.

There will be separate sessions for 5th to 8th grade players and 9th grade-adults, and both clinics will be capped at 40 players, so early registration is suggested.

The pertinent info can be found in the snazzy photo above.

Hyppa coached at Henry Foss High School in Tacoma from 2003-2006, then followed that up with a stint at his alma mater, Stadium, from 2006-2012.

He has worked with thousands of players, several of whom have gone on to play professionally.

That list includes Abdul Gaddy, Steven Gray, Alex Montgomery, Lindsey Moore and Brandon Brown.

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Play as a team, win as a team!!

January 22, 2016 by David Svien

Lauren Rose (John Fisken photo)

   Lauren Rose, seen here in an earlier game, was one of three Wolves to hit for eight Friday in a Wolf JV win.  (John Fisken photo)

Mouse was back in the house, and all was right.

Back after missing time with an illness, spark-plug Lauren Rose threw down five of her team-high eight points in the first quarter Friday, sparking the Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball squad to a runaway win on its home court.

The 36-22 victory over a scrappy Port Townsend team lifted the young Wolves to 5-8 overall, 3-1 in 1A Olympic League play.

For a second, the game was a close one, as the two rivals exchanged opening baskets.

Wolf freshman Sarah Wright went down low for a hard-earned bucket in the paint, before the most popular visiting player in all the land, Port Townsend’s always-smiling Amelia Breithaupt, threw down a running hook shot to answer.

After that, it was all Coupeville, all the time, until coach Amy King called off the attack late in the third.

The Wolves blew the game open with an 11-0 run after Breithaupt’s bucket, with Skyler Lawrence banging home three baskets around a pair of scores from Rose.

The crafty sophomore ace put a rebound back up and in, then drilled a three-ball from somewhere out in the parking lot.

CHS continued to push the pace, with different players showing a hot hand, eventually stretching the lead out to 32-8 late in the third.

From that point on, the Wolves went into clock-eating mode, working on plays.

Rose shared scoring honors with Lawrence and Wenzel, as each of the swing players scored eight points apiece. Wright and Maddy Hilkey rounded out the attack, each dropping in six.

Two of Hilkey’s points came when she swished a pair at the free-throw line, which is notable because there were so few visits to the charity stripe on the night.

Between the JV and varsity games, Coupeville owned a 5-0 advantage on made free throws Friday, with the JV sinking three of those.

Wright paced the Wolves on the boards, snatching 14, while Lawrence and Ashlie Shank had four apiece.

Hilkey pilfered four steals, with Brittany Powers and Nicole Lester making off with two apiece.

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Twice the heartbreak!!

January 22, 2016 by David Svien

Jordan Ford (John Fisken photos)

   Jordan Ford (5), seen here in an earlier game, dropped in a team-high 12 Friday, but Coupeville lost at Port Townsend. (John Fisken photos)

Ty Eck rained down 26, best by any Wolf this season, in the JV loss.

Ty Eck rained down 26, best by any Wolf this season, in the JV loss.

Three steps forward, one step backward.

The Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad rolled into play Friday night on a three-game winning streak, but a poor first quarter threw a wrench into the gears.

Trailing 20-9 after the first eight minutes, the Wolves fought back hard but couldn’t overcome a steady Port Townsend team, falling 67-51 on the road.

The loss dropped Coupeville to 7-7 overall, 2-2 in league play.

Port Townsend sits atop the standings at 4-0, while the Wolves are in a tie with Chimacum (2-2) with five to play.

Klahowya (0-4) would be the odd man out right now, if the playoffs started tomorrow.

They don’t though, which gives Coupeville plenty of time to control its playoff fate and still make a run at a title.

The Wolves play their next three games at home, starting with Chimacum Tuesday, Jan. 26.

Friday night CHS was stung early and late.

In the first half it was RedHawk ace Kaiden Parcher, who went for all of his game-high 16 points before halftime.

In the late going, it was a 15-5 Port Townsend run to open the fourth that was the final blow.

Coupeville’s best run came in the second quarter, when Risen Johnson, Gabe Wynn and Wiley Hesselgrave each tossed in five points as the Wolves held an 18-14 advantage.

Jordan Ford paced CHS with a team-high 12, while Hunter Smith hit for nine.

Wynn and Hesselgrave each popped for eight, with Risen Johnson (6), JJ Johnson (3), Dante Mitchell (2), Jared Helmstadter (2) and DeAndre Mitchell (1) rounding out the scorers.

JV nipped:

Coupeville’s big two — Ty Eck and Brian Shank — combined for 43 points, but it wasn’t quite enough, as the Wolf young guns fell 64-53.

The loss dropped the JV squad to 2-10 overall, 0-4 in league play.

Eck was electric, going off for 26, the best by any CHS hoops player this season, boy or girl.

He rained down three treys along the way, scoring in every quarter, with a 10-point first quarter kicking things off.

Shank added 17 with a variety of inside moves, while Cameron Toomey-Stout banked home six. Andre Avila and Hunter Downes both chipped in with a bucket apiece.

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Defense wins titles!!

January 22, 2016 by David Svien

Mia Littlejohn (21), seen here in an earlier game, dropped in nine points Friday to spark Coupeville to a league win. (Sylvia Hurlburt photo)

   Mia Littlejohn (21), seen here in an earlier game, dropped in nine points Friday to spark Coupeville to a league win. (Sylvia Hurlburt photo)

They almost threw a shutout.

Using an opportunistic, scrambling defense, the Couepville High School girls’ basketball squad held visiting Port Townsend scoreless for nearly a quarter-and-a-half to kick off Friday night’s game.

And, while they finally did give up a bucket at the 4:25 mark of the second quarter, the Wolves stayed almost as stingy the entire game, freezing out the RedHawks en route to a 29-14 win.

The victory, which capped a long week in which the Wolves faced finals at school while playing three games in five days — two on the road — lifted CHS to 10-4 overall, 4-0 in league play.

Coupeville, the defending league champs, once again sits atop the 1A Olympic League, with Klahowya (2-2), Chimacum (1-3) and Port Townsend (1-3) trying to play catch-up.

While they maybe didn’t play perfect on this night, they kept their record perfect by bringing the heat on ‘D’.

“In the first half we definitely played strong defense; our help defense was there,” said Coupeville coach David King. “I love that we had that energy.”

He would have liked a little stronger showing on the boards, though, as the RedHawks controlled the rebounding game early, but could not get a shot to go down.

No matter what they tried.

Shot after shot slid off the rim for Port Townsend, caught a bad bounce on the glass or started to drop, only to pop back out.

In the early going, Coupeville wasn’t much luckier themselves, as the two teams combined to go scoreless until the 3:37 mark of the first quarter.

The Wolves finally broke through when Lauren Grove banked in a long jumper from the left side, getting the ball to rattle around before it settled through the twines with a sigh.

Of course, that sigh might have come from anxious Wolf fans.

If it did, it changed to a roar in an instant, as Mia Littlejohn drained a pull-up trey from the top on the very next possession, effectively ending the game at 5-0.

While that might sound a bit extreme, it’s not, as Port Townsend could not get anything going on offense, no matter what they tried.

After a Makana Stone put-back staked the Wolves to a 7-0 lead at the end of one, Coupeville finally surrendered a runner in the key, then closed the half out with an 8-0 run.

Littlejohn and Stone each dropped in four during the surge, with the best bucket coming on a vintage coast-to-coast rampage by Coupeville’s lone senior.

On that play, Stone went to the ceiling to absolutely crush a Port Townsend shot.

Having snagged the loose ball off of the block, she hit the rocket boosters in her shoes and promptly out-ran everyone to the other end for a swooping, slicing lay-up.

Port Townsend’s shooting touch warmed up just a bit in the second half, as they finally struggled into double digits in the fourth quarter, but they never truly threatened the Wolves.

Coupeville ran the lead out to 29-10, off of back-to-back buckets from Kailey Kellner, on a beautiful pump fake and drive, and Stone, before the RedHawks tossed in two baskets in the final seconds.

Stone paced the Wolves with 12 points, 18 rebounds, seven blocks and four steals, while Littlejohn banged away for nine points, seven boards and two assists.

Kellner (four points, three rebounds) and Grove (four points, two rebounds) rounded out the Wolf scorers.

“Mia played well tonight,” King said. “She was aggressive on defense and helped us get going on offense early on.

“Lauren Grove hit a couple big shots for us, as well.”

Lindsey Roberts (3), Skyler Lawrence (3), Tiffany Briscoe (2) and Kyla Briscoe (2) all chipped in on the boards, while Lauren Rose and Allison Wenzel were relentless on defense during their floor time.

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