Hawthorne Wolfe (far right) banked in nine points Tuesday, moving closer to being Coupeville’s highest-scoring freshman boy in 102 years. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
There were a couple highlights.
Now, they were few and far between, which is often what happens when you’re a team in rebuilding mode and your opponent firmly believes, and plays like, it can win a state title.
But they were there.
The scoreboard will tell you the King’s High School boys basketball squad stormed into Coupeville’s gym Tuesday and ran away with a 76-31 win.
Which is not a surprise.
The ninth-straight win for the Knights, it lifts them to 8-0 in North Sound Conference play, and, combined with South Whidbey’s loss to Sultan, clinches the league crown.
But rest assured King’s is thinking about more than a conference title.
At 14-4 overall, with losses only to 4A Glacier Peak, 2A schools Lynden and Lakewood and California power Corona del Mar, the Knights, a team who can start an entire five-man lineup of players 6-foot-5 or taller, wants the big banner.
Whether they can get past fellow 1A juggernaut Lynden Christian (17-0) and its star, University of Michigan recruit Cole Bajema, is a question for another day.
On this day, they looked big, quick, polished, reeking of basketball smarts and with few, if any, weak links.
Unlike previous years, they don’t necessarily have a superstar (though their 6’7 freshman is on his way), but when every single player on the roster can hurt you, badly, spreading scoring out isn’t a bad thing.
Coupeville, by contrast, is 1-6 in league play, 2-12 overall, and trying to hold off Granite Falls (0-7, 2-14) for the fifth, and final, NSC playoff spot.
Its leading scorer is a freshman, it lists only one player over 6’2, and it lost six of last year’s seven top scorers to graduation.
Things are a work in progress for CHS head coach Brad Sherman, and assistants Chris Smith and Scott Fox.
And yet, other than a first quarter where the film should be burned to protect the innocent, the Wolves stepped up and showed they can be competitive, can push good teams and go down swinging against great ones.
All we’ll say about the opening eight minutes is the Wolves looked unusually flustered, perhaps allowing a big name on the opposing jersey to put them off their game.
With King’s shredding Coupeville’s last nerve with its press, the Knights threw down easy bucket after easier bucket en route to a 31-1 advantage at the first break.
It was ugly, plain and simple.
But, after that, Sherman seemed to get through to his players, to remind them this was nothing new, that they had played King’s before and could have some success if they did what they knew had worked.
While there was no great comeback brewing, the Wolves did stay much more competitive after that, only being outscored 21-13 in the second quarter.
Jered Brown, who accounted for Coupeville’s lone point in the first quarter, opened the second with a jumper and that helped ignite the offense.
The Wolves tossed in a trio of three-balls in the quarter, two from Mason Grove and a third by Gavin Knoblich, while Ulrik Wells stroked a sweet pull-up jumper which cleared the outstretched fingertips of one of King’s big bangers.
The second half belonged to freshman Hawthorne Wolfe, who bounced and skidded around for all nine of his points after the break.
A swooping layup came on a play where he cut through a forest of tree toppers jammed in the lane, followed by a three-ball and then a layup off a strong feed from Grove.
Grove and Wolfe, who are listed in the program at 5’8 and 5’7, respectively, also showed grit, each ripping a rebound away from much-taller foes, then going back up for the second-chance bucket.
With the clock moving quickly, and King’s coach carping he “just wanted to catch the ferry,” Coupeville fans got a couple of nice moments near the end.
The normally unflappable Knights botched a couple of dunk attempts, drawing raspberries from the Wolf faithful, before CHS freshman Xavier Murdy put a cap on things.
Wolfe found him on the right side with about two ticks to play, and X-Man promptly drilled the bottom of the net out on a long three-ball, recording the first varsity score of his career.
Just 303 more points and he’ll catch uncle Allen Black for the family scoring title.
Wolfe’s nine gives him a team-best 134 on the season, pulling him a sliver away from passing Mike Bagby (137) to become the highest-scoring freshman boy in 102 years of CHS basketball.
Grove rattled the rims for eight, Brown banked in six, Knoblich and Murdy netted three apiece, and Wells rounded out the scoring with his bucket.
Jacobi Pilgrim, Dane Lucero, Jean Lund-Olsen, Sean Toomey-Stout, and Daniel Olson also got a chance to go toe-to-toe with King’s, as Sherman ran all 11 active players onto the court.
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