“Tell me all about it when I wake up.” (Charlotte Young photo)
It was a beautiful brawl in Cow Town.
And while the good guys lost on points (or one point) this time out, it was far from a KO.
Stung by a furious finish from visiting La Conner Tuesday, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team fell 69-68 in a game decided in the final, frantic seconds.
The loss drops the Wolves to 3-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 10-3 overall, and, for the moment, slips them to third place in the standings.
But CHS gets another crack at La Conner (3-0, 10-5), and hosts league leader Mount Vernon Christian (6-0, 6-9) Friday, offering a quick chance to throw things asunder.
The Wolves still have seven games left on the regular season schedule, with four of those being conference rumbles.
While a league title would look nice on the wall, it’s the three-team battle between La Conner, Friday Harbor, and Coupeville which decides which two 2B schools advance to the playoffs.
With Tuesday’s win, the Braves are 2-0, while the Wolves sit at 1-1. Having lost to both those teams, the Wolverines bring up the rear at 0-2.
CHS closes the regular season with a home game against Friday Harbor Feb. 2, then travels to La Conner Feb. 6, before their two rivals mix it up one more time Feb. 9.
Tuesday’s tilt was a wild one, starting one way, taking a drastic detour, then morphing into a non-stop hail of punches being thrown in every direction.
Take just the first quarter and Coupeville was a million miles better than La Conner.
The Wolves came out super aggressive on defense, and threw the fear of God into their arch-rivals, forcing great gobs of turnovers, and using them to set up a fast-paced layup line.
With Chase Andeson and Cole White flying down the floor and hauling in outlet passes from Logan Downes, who was in full-on quarterback mode, Coupeville stormed out to a 12-2 lead, stretched it to 18-4, then headed to the bench up 21-9.
Little worked for the Braves in the opening eight minutes, as their press failed, their offense stalled out, and they looked three steps too slow.
That, unfortunately, was deceptive, as La Conner rediscovered its mojo in the second frame.
A trio of three-balls splashing home helped the Braves, who suddenly got much quicker, and much better at controlling the ball.
Down 16, La Conner stormed all the way back to take the lead before the half.
One second, the Braves were trailing 25-9, the next they were up 33-30 as the teams went to the locker room.
Fifteen straight points to end the half, then a pullup jumper to open the third, made the visitors (and their fans) a bit feisty.
Logan Downes, on his way to one of many buckets. (Parker Hammons photo)
Re-enter Downes, who snatched the ball away and went on his own tear.
Dropping in 14 points in the third quarter, the Wolf senior couldn’t be stopped, scoring in a multitude of ways.
Step back and he nailed a three-ball in your face. Come up on him, and he slashed around you, careening to the basket.
La Conner hung tough but fueled by Downes assault on the basket, the Wolves regained the lead at 50-48 heading into the fourth.
And looked like they were going to pull away.
Another three-ball from Downes, who hit eight treys in the game, plus a breakaway bucket for Anderson — off a Downes pass — pushed the lead to 57-50.
But this was a game of ebbs and flows, and La Conner struck right back, using an 11-2 surge to move back in front at 61-59.
Bam! Bam!
Downes ripped off back-to-back three-balls, CHS reemerged with a 65-61 lead, and both coaches were reaching for the heart medicine.
La Conner, with an assist from the refs, who fouled out Wolf gunners Ryan Blouin and Cole White to reduce Coupeville’s weapons at crunch time, had one final surge, however.
While Ivory Damien and Brayden Pedroza went off for 27 and 24 points, respectively, it was CJ Edwards who delivered the kill shots.
The quicksilver Brave popped a short jumper in the paint to push his squad ahead 67-65, then ignored the wailing of the hometown crowd to ice the game with a pair of late free throws.
Downes banked home a three-ball on the run to cut the final margin from 69-65 to 69-68, but time ran out on the Wolves.
Coupeville got points from seven different players, with their leader tying his season-high with 36 points.
It’s the third-straight 30+ game for Downes, and his sixth of the season.
He’s averaging 24.9 a night and continues to hit major milestones almost every time out.
Downes, who has 1,102 points heading into Friday’s clash with MVC, is now #3 on the all-time CHS boys’ career scoring chart, which spans 107 seasons.
Having passed ’70s wild man Randy Keefe (1,088) Tuesday, he’s just 36 points from knocking off Jeff Stone and Mike Bagby, who sit atop the throne tied with 1,137 points.
After that comes the top three scorers in school history — Wolf female stars Brianne King (1,549), Novi Barron (1,270), and Makana Stone (1,158).
Anderson, moving quickly up the career chart as just a sophomore, banked in 12 points Tuesday in support of Downes, while White (8), Nick Guay (5), Ryan Blouin (3), Zane Oldenstadt (2), and Hunter Bronec (2) also scored.
William Davidson, Hurlee Bronec, and Timothy Nitta also saw floor time for Brad Sherman’s squad.
