Wolf sophomore Mason Grove has torched the nets at both the JV and varsity levels this season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Allen Black, basketball gunner extraordinaire turned daddy, and the legend Grove is chasing.
CHS basketball announcer Moose Moran bags the first of many interviews with Grove. (Renae Mulholland photo)
Shooters gotta shoot.
It’s hardwired in their DNA, the need to let the ball fly and the ability to make sure said ball hits nothing but net on the way down.
As Mason Grove tears up the court this season, it brings back memories of Allen Black, another Wolf gunner with no conscious and an electric shooting touch.
Black holds the unofficial CHS basketball scoring record for JV players, torching the nets for 347 points during his junior season in 2002-2003.
A year later, he was a varsity star, an All-Conference pick who led Coupeville in scoring with 305 points, including 39 against Concrete.
Grove, who is operating as a swing player during his sophomore season, is hot on Black’s trail, having dropped in 294 points through the first 15 JV games of the season.
With four games left on the schedule, Grove, who is averaging 19.6 a night, needs 54 points to top Black.
“Mason should be able to beat it, he’s pretty good,” said the always low-key Black, who remains open to the idea of the duo joining a who’s-who of past and present Wolf shooters in a three-ball competition.
“Three-point contest like an All-Star game, with a bunch of people, would be cool,” Mr. Easy Rider said with a small grin — the smile of a shark circling his prey.
For his part, Grove is heating up the rims at two levels this season, using brief bursts of varsity playing time to rattle home 42 points at that level.
That puts him in a fourth-place tie with Hunter Downes among varsity players.
Whether he gets enough floor time at the JV level in the final four games to catch Black or not, Grove’s explosive season has caught the eyes of coaches and fans alike.
First-year Coupeville head coach Brad Sherman has first-hand knowledge of both Grove and Black, helping coach the former and having played with the latter.
“I just remember that Allen was seriously quick and hard to keep up with on the court,” Sherman said. “Mason really continues to impress from behind the arc this season.
“Similar styles of play, both hard workers on the court, and both with the ability to score a bunch in a really short span.”
That is proven by a quick look at their stats.
Black rained down 19 points in a single JV quarter against Concrete, the team he would return to haunt as a varsity star, while Grove has twice thrown down 17 in a quarter this season, shredding Port Townsend and Chimacum.
Grove has scored in every JV game this season, something Black also did in his day.
For the moment, Black has the edge in 20-point games (9-6), and double-digit scoring (17-13), but Grove returns the favor in 30-point games (3-1).
Having seen both of the gunners in their prime, Sherman, no slouch himself from the outside during a career where he finished #8 on the CHS boys career scoring chart, has a solid appreciation for what Black and Grove bring to the floor.
“As shooters — very quick releases are hard to defend, and (both) never afraid to shoot when they get a good look,” Sherman said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that these are the two at the top of this list.”
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