Ryan Blouin delivers a three-ball under the watchful eye of CHS coach Brad Sherman. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Every game matters.
The Coupeville High School boys’ basketball team opens 2B state tourney play next week, but its first rumble will be a loser-out affair, requiring a win if the Wolves want to go on to the glitz of the Spokane Arena.
CHS, seeded #11 in the 16-team field, plays #14 Tonasket Saturday, Feb. 24 at Arlington High School.
Tipoff is 4:00 PM and the Wolves will be the host team.
That’s a “short” 60-mile trip for Coupeville, and a 211-mile slog for Tonasket.
While there are 16 teams in the state tourney field, the penny pinchers at the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association only have 12 advance to Spokane, where tourney action plays out Feb. 28-Mar. 2.
Teams seeded #1-#8 are guaranteed at least two games, while teams #9-#16 have to win their opening bout to advance.
If Coupeville, which sits at 17-5 on the season, beats Tonasket (14-10), it will face either #3 Colfax (25-0) or #6 Toutle Lake (20-5) Feb. 28 in Spokane.
To see the bracket, pop over to:
Coupeville advanced to state by winning the District 1/2 title, beating Auburn Adventist Academy 64-50 and La Conner 60-44.
The Braves (16-7) rebounded to knock off AAA 68-57 to claim their own state ticket and are seeded #15.
La Conner opens state against #10 Adna in a loser-out game of its own, with that contest slated to go down at W.F. West High School in Chehalis.
The Wolves celebrate a Bi-District title with defensive guru Randy Bottorff.
And what of Coupeville’s first round foe?
Tonasket, which sits 240 miles away from Cow Town, plays in the Central Washington B League, which is comprised of 18 schools.
Featuring a mix of 1B and 2B institutions, the league includes traditional powers like Lake Roosevelt (seeded #4 in this year’s boys’ state tourney), Okanogan, and Brewster.
Tonasket finished second in the District 6 tourney, then held off Kettle Falls 63-55 in a District 6/7 crossover game to advance to state.
The Tigers were ranked #20 in the WIAA’s RPI, while Coupeville was #9.
A roster on MaxPreps lists eight players, with three seniors.
Half of Tonasket’s roster is recorded at being 5-foot-8 or shorter, with just two Tigers topping six-foot.
That duo is 6-4 junior Bradon Prock and 6-3 junior Kristian Jones, who both reportedly push the scale to just 160 pounds.
Jones averages 13.6 points and seven rebounds a night, while senior Jade Ramon leads Tonasket with 13.9 points per game.
Sophomore Tanner Tompkins (11.2) and Prock (10.8) give the Tigers four players averaging double figures, though none comes close to Coupeville’s leading marksman, Logan Downes.
Depending on whether we count the Chief Leschi game, where he played just two minutes before leaving with an injury, the Wolf senior is averaging either 24.0 or 22.9 per appearance.
Logan Downes has a scoring quota to fill.
Sophomore Chase Anderson (8.9) and senior Cole White (8.8) sit #2 and #3 for Coupeville this season.
This marks Tonasket’s eleventh trip to the state tourney, but its first since 2017.
The Tigers best finish came in 1981-1982, when they placed 3rd while playing in the 1A classification.
Coupeville is making its seventh appearance, and its second in the past three seasons after playing Kalama and Lake Roosevelt in 2022.
And some quick-hitting non-basketball facts about Tonasket to round out your Sunday?
According to the whiz kids at Wikipedia, the town, located along the eastern bank of the Okanogan River, was officially incorporated Dec. 16, 1927, and is named after Chief Tonasket.
He was a local leader who “assumed the status of grand chief of the American Okanogan after the drawing of the Canada-United States border by the Oregon Treaty of 1846.”
The area is “a hub for agricultural and forestry industries” and “the location of three major fruit storage and processing facilities.”
Plus, Walter H. Brattain, son of a pioneer family, shared the 1956 Nobel Prize for Physics for the invention of the transistor.
Other memorable folks to spring from Tonasket include Wendy J. Fox, author of “The Seven Stages of Anger and Other Stories,” three-time Olympic biathlete Jeremy Teela, and former Nevada state senator Dean Rhoads, hailed as a “consummate rural lawmaker.”
You came for the basketball, you left with obscure trivia.
We call that a win-win in the blogging biz.
Coupeville Sports 