Jared Helmstadter, seen here in an earlier game, had a huge three-point play Friday that helped turn the tide for Coupeville. (John Fisken photo)
When one team travels 525 miles round-trip for a single non-conference boys’ basketball game, you kinda hope the game is a thriller.
And that’s exactly how it worked out Friday, as the Coupeville boys held off several substantial rallies by visiting Stevenson, escaping with a 64-60 win that left virtually everyone feeling like they got their money’s worth.
The victory, the second straight for the surging Wolves, lifted them to 6-6 headed into the heart of conference play.
Coupeville, which sits in second place in the 1A Olympic League at 1-1, plays its final seven games against conference foes, starting with a trip to Chimacum Tuesday.
Friday night, though, there was no playoff pressure, just two fairly evenly matched squads going at it for 32 minutes of rock-em, sock-em action.
The Bulldogs, who hail from way down around the Washington/Oregon border, had a decent-sized rooting section with them, and they gave those fans something to scream about.
A game that featured epic runs from both teams, and wild lead changes, started as a Coupeville rout, then took a detour into the ditch for a bit.
The Wolves came out flying from the tip, with Hunter Smith and Risen Johnson combining to kick off a 9-3 opening salvo.
Smith dropped a trey off a steal and Johnson got both of his buckets slicing through the paint, leaving Bulldogs grasping at air as he slithered past them to the hoop.
But then, as quickly as it began, everything turned off for Coupeville.
Once it settled down, Stevenson fell in love with the hoop, ripping off 13 straight points on a variety of quick cuts to the basket and one gorgeous three-ball from the right side.
The Wolves finally stopped the bleeding with a pull-up jumper off of Johnson’s fingertips and a great hustle play from Jared Helmstadter.
The Coupeville senior, flying down the left side a couple of steps behind Smith on a breakaway, was perfectly positioned to snatch away a rebound when his teammate’s layup took a weird bounce and came back out of the basket.
Grabbing the ball, Helmstadter powered up and over a Bulldog for the put-back, then drained the free-throw he got for being whacked upside the head while doing so.
While that closed the gap to 16-14 after the first eight minutes, Stevenson, a very steady, fundamentally-solid team, never blinked and stretched the lead back out to seven midway through the next quarter.
Enter the rampaging bull himself, one Gabe Wynn.
Chasing a loose ball, the Wolf junior blew up his own bench, exploding through two chairs and scattering his teammates as he ended up, face-first, several rows up into the bleachers.
That play seemed to unleash Coupeville’s inner beast, as it ended the half with a game-busting 17-1 run.
Smith scored 10 of his game-high 19 during that stretch, but it was Desmond Bell’s super-long bucket from the right side with two ticks left on the clock that really knocked the air out of Stevenson.
Up nine at the half and raging with confidence, Coupeville came out aggressively in the third, stretching the margin to as much as 15 points.
But this was not a night for blow-outs.
Cue another Stevenson run from late in the third to early in the fourth, this one played to a merry 12-1 tune, and suddenly it was a four-point game once again.
Both teams dropped daggers for several minutes, Coupeville unable to pull away, its visitors not quite able to get all the way back.
A little bit of luck went a long way in the waning minutes, as the Wolves dodged what could have been a huge mistake.
Clinging to its lead, Coupeville had a player whistled for a technical foul after he slapped the court in frustration over a pro-Stevenson call by a ref.
But with Wolf fans screaming and hollering, the Bulldogs missed both free throws, then threw the ball away on the in-bounds pass, preventing them from making it a one-possession game.
CHS closed the game at the line, scoring its final six points there, and better yet, forced Stevenson to turn the ball over several times in the final two minutes, blunting any comeback hopes.
“We did what we needed to, when we needed to,” said relieved Wolf coach Anthony Smith. “We’ll take a win every day of the week.”
Coupeville spread around its scoring, with Wiley Hesselgrave hitting for 13 and Jordan Ford dropping 11 in support of Hunter Smith’s season-best performance.
Ford went for seven of his points in the crucible of the fourth quarter, including draining three free throws in the final 35 seconds.
Risen Johnson knocked down eight, Wynn swished five, Helsmstadter drilled four and JJ Johnson and Bell each added a bucket to round out the stat sheet.
Dante and DeAndre Mitchell didn’t score, but the high-flying Wolf twins were a force on the boards and injected a ton of energy into the lineup every time they stepped on the floor.
