Camden Glover had a very-strong senior season and was a scoring threat both in the paint and behind the three-point arc. (Julie Wheat photo)
It’s hard to fight from behind all night.
That well-worn bit of wisdom bit the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball squad hard Tuesday night, as the Wolves were eliminated from the District 1/2 playoffs with a 59-45 loss on Orcas Island.
The defeat drops CHS to 7-13, and Brad Sherman’s road warriors lose five players, including four starters, to graduation.
Wolf seniors Camden Glover, Aiden O’Neill, Easton Green, Chase Anderson, and Malachi Somes reached the end of their run, with Anderson hunched on the end of the bench in the final quarter, an ice bag clamped on his wrist.
Tuesday’s score is a bit deceptive.
Throw out the second quarter, and it’s a one-bucket game.
But they don’t let you do that, so a 21-9 Orcas surge across an eight-minute span proved fatal for a scrappy Wolf pack which was otherwise right there with the Vikings.
Coupeville’s one, and only lead, came at 2-0, as the Wolves broke the press right off the top and fed the ball to Somes for a quick layup.
But things got more difficult after that, with Orcas bolting out to a 10-4 lead and never letting the visitors get fully back into the game.
A sweet jumper in the paint off the fingertips of Davin Houston and a three-ball from O’Neill — set up by a nice kick-out by Carson Grove — pulled Coupeville to within 10-9 at the first break, but then things took a fatal turn.
The Wolves ended up beating Orcas 8-4 in the three-ball shoot-off, but the Vikings hit two daggers from long distance early in the second quarter to bust things wide open with a 12-0 run to start the second frame.
Anderson singed the nets on a three-ball to finally stop the bleeding, but the Vikings pulled off back-to-back three-point plays the hard way to carry a 31-18 lead in at the half.
O’Neill knocked down one of his four treys to kick off the third, getting the deficit back down to 10, but it wasn’t to be, as Orcas responded with a 9-0 run to stretch things back out to 40-21.
From there, the Wolves dug down deep, even after losing Anderson, who hit the floor hard late in the third, and fought all the way until the final buzzer.
The two teams finished in a 16-16 deadlock across the third quarter, with Orcas only taking the fourth by a razor-thin 12-11 margin.
Houston, a springy ball of energy who will be Coupeville’s leading active scorer headed into next season, finished his junior campaign strongly, pumping in a pair of three-balls and a pair of free throws in the fourth quarter.
O’Neill paced the Wolves with a team-high 14, with Houston and Anderson each rattling the rim for 10 points in support.
Somes (6), Glover (3), and Green (2) also scored, with Liam Blas, Riley Lawless, and Grove rounding out the rotation.
Before exiting, Anderson reached one final personal milestone, passing ’70s icon Bill Riley (934 points) to move into 7th place all-time on the CHS boys’ career scoring chart for a program in its 109th season.
He finishes with back-to-back seasons of 300+ points and tallied 943 across four seasons of varsity ball.
Final season scoring stats:
Chase Anderson – 344
Camden Glover – 236
Davin Houston – 118
Aiden O’Neill – 118
Malachi Somes – 68
Carson Grove – 32
Riley Lawless – 27
Easton Green – 23
Liam Blas – 16
Mahkai Myles – 12
Sage Arends – 10
Coupeville Sports 