Dante Mitchell, back from an injury, was one of nine Wolves to score Friday in a 66-60 win over Concrete. (John Fisken photo)
In the end, no matter how you got there, a win is a win.
And Friday night’s victory for the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad, whether it was perfect or not, was a huge milestone of a win.
You can dwell on how the Wolves almost gave away a 19-point lead in the fourth quarter, or you can focus on the fact they held on to nip visiting Concrete 66-60.
In that scenario, Coupeville is currently celebrating a third straight win and, at 4-3, is over .500 for the first time ever under fifth-year coach Anthony Smith.
Plus, with the return of injured players Hunter Smith and Dante Mitchell and the debut of transfer JJ Johnson, the Wolves finally have a full, healthy 11-player roster and nearly two weeks to work on closing out games before they take the court again.
With winter break, Coupeville doesn’t return to action until Dec. 30, when it hosts La Conner.
After that, eight of their final 11 regular season games will be against 1A Olympic League teams.
The Wolves, at 1-0, are currently tied with Port Townsend atop the league standings.
Facing off with a non-conference foe in Concrete which had no players over six-foot-tall, Coupeville came out aggressively and took control of the game in the early going.
A trey from the left side off the fingertips of junior guard Gabe Wynn staked the Wolves to their first lead at 5-4, and they controlled the flow.
With seven different players getting into the scoring column in the opening quarter, led by Wynn with five, Coupeville bolted out to a 17-10 lead that could have been much larger.
Despite missing a flurry of shots, the Wolves dominated the boards and continued to fire away, closing the quarter on a 10-4 run in which five different players banged home a bucket.
Their early shooting woes finally hurt them to start the second, as Concrete opened the quarter on a 9-0 tear to reclaim the lead at 19-17.
That seemed to flip a switch down deep in the Wolves, as they responded immediately and with great fury.
Hunter Smith, playing in only his second game of the season after missing the last five with a back injury, dropped a dagger of a three-ball to snatch the lead right back.
With their sophomore sensation pouring in eight in the quarter, Coupeville closed the half on a 19-10 surge.
Up 36-29 at the break, the Wolves erupted out of the locker room seemingly intent on thoroughly crushing Concrete.
With Wiley Hesselgrave hitting from everywhere — he knocked down two treys en route to 10 in the third — and Risen Johnson dishing the ball left and right, always finding the open man at the very last second, Coupeville blew the lead out to 21 late in the quarter.
But just as the Lions seemed done, they began to creep back into the game.
And I do mean creep, as they used eight consecutive free throws to start a “run” that slowly, ever so slowly, drew them back into the contest.
Coupeville got just enough down the stretch — a hard charge down the sideline from Hesselgrave, who spun his defender around as he zipped past him for a layup and a soft, sweet turnaround jumper from DeAndre Mitchell — to keep the lead from totally evaporating.
Still, there were times when they gave their coach more angina than expected, as the lead dropped from 19 to five in the waning seconds.
Finally, after Jordan Ford slid a final free-throw through the twine to set the final score, Anthony Smith could fully relax and enjoy the moment.
“A win is a win is a win. I’ll take it,” he said with a huge smile. “Now we’ve got some time to clean things up, fix what’s not working and continue doing what is working.”
Anthony Smith praised the play of Mitchell (“he gave us hustle and energy and was a true spark for us at different times”), Ford (“played tenacious, as always”) and Hunter Smith (“played well, good to get him back.”)
As they have done in almost every game this season, the Wolves had a very balanced scoring attack.
Hesselgrave regained the season scoring lead with a 16-point night, while Ford banged away for 13 and Wynn and Hunter Smith each hit for 10.
DeAndre Mitchell added seven, while Dante Mitchell (4), Jared Helmstadter (2), Ryan Griggs (2) and Risen Johnson (2) rounded out the scorers.
Desmond Bell and JJ Johnson didn’t score, but both brought high energy to the floor during their shifts.
