Logan Downes knocked down 30 points Tuesday afternoon in Leavenworth, sparking Coupeville to a holiday tournament win. (Andrew Williams photo)
Halfway to a title.
Leading from start to finish Tuesday, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball squad held off scrappy Kittitas-Thorp at the Cascade Holiday Classic in Leavenworth.
The Wolves had to scale two mountain passes to get to their destination, and fueled by late-night pizza, they played strongly on both ends of the floor against their Eastern Washington foes.
Winning 54-49 in a game in which it led by as many as 15 points, Coupeville earned its fourth win in its last six games.
Now, the Wolves, who sit at 4-4 on the season, return to the Cascade High School gym Wednesday to play Manson (4-3) for the tourney title.
The Trojans toppled the tourney hosts 52-48 in overtime in Tuesday’s opener.
When Coupeville hit the floor, it ended a nine-day mini-vacation between games.
The last time the Wolves faced a rival, they bonked Forks back on Dec. 17, and the Whidbey Island gunners picked right back up where they left off.
Logan Downes, coming off a career-best 33-point performance, knocked down a layup to get things going Tuesday, and was off on what would turn into a 30-point game.
The Wolf junior, who is averaging 22.5 a night, threw down 13 points in the first quarter against Kittitas, sparking a 20-9 run.
Downes got some help along the way, with Jonathan Valenzuela and Cole White popping for buckets — the latter of those set up by a steal, drive, and dish from Alex Murdy.
Kittitas banked in a three-ball with mere ticks left on the clock in the opening frame, only to have Wolf freshman Chase Anderson promptly go Predator on their tushies.
Curling into the left corner, he pulled in a pass and let fly with a graceful trey of his own, the ball splashing home right before the buzzer, collectively ripping the spines out of all five defenders.
The Coyotes rep a program which has won two state titles, though, so they proved resilient.
Valenzuela opened the second quarter by snatching a rebound and muscling the ball back up and in, before Kittitas flipped the script during a 10-0 tear of its own.
Jonathan Valenzuela had several key buckets against Kittitas and played strongly on defense. (Chloe Marzocca photo)
Coupeville went close to four minutes without scoring, but never lost the lead, thanks to plucky defensive play.
White twice drew offensive charging fouls on rampaging Coyotes, sacrificing his body as his butt and back slammed into the floor as the ref screeched on the whistle.
“I need to buy that boy some padded underwear!” yelped Cole’s mom, Morgan, on her Facebook Live stream.
Later she changed that to, “I need to buy the WHOLE team some padded underwear!”
Which fit, as Coupeville took five charges in the game, with William Davidson and Downes also coming up big by sprawling on the defensive end of the floor.
With Kittitas back in the game and trailing just 22-19, the Wolves delivered their second spine-ripper of the day.
It came off of the fingertips of Ryan Blouin, a three-ball fired from the deepest, darkest corner of the left side of the court, ball hitting net, then dropping through in unison with the halftime buzzer.
Ramping up its defense even more in the second half — Murdy rejecting one shot with enough force to kick the ball all the way back to Whidbey — Coupeville started to pull away.
Back-to-back buckets from a rampaging Dominic Coffman, with both set up by Murdy, stretched the lead to double digits, before White sent the Wolves into the fourth quarter with a 41-26 advantage.
Pulling in a full-court heave from Downes, Morgan’s boy slipped through a forest of foes, nimbly slapping home a layup to earn a fist pump from dad Greg, bouncing on and off the bench in his role as an assistant coach.
Cole wasn’t done, opening the fourth quarter by nimbly mopping up a wet spot on the floor.
Twirling a towel like a pro, his extracurricular work earned approval from mom.
“I wish I could get him to clean the floor at home like that!”
Cole White, efficient with a basketball or towel. (Andrew Williams photo)
But then, in a twist of fate which made the hometown fans much happier than the road-weary Wolf supporters in attendance, Kittitas staged one final assault.
A pair of three-balls and an endless series of trips to the foul line triggered a 13-0 surge for the Coyotes, and Coupeville’s lead shrank all the way down to 41-39 with a hair over four minutes left to play.
Never fear, though, for Logan is here.
Downes found his groove one final time, banging in 10 points as Coupeville used a 12-4 run to seal the win.
Hitting from behind the arc, inside the paint, and at the charity stripe, he got assistance in crunch time from Zane Oldenstadt, who corralled a key rebound, and the ever-marauding Murdy, who terrorized the Coyote ballhandlers.
Kittitas did get a pair of three-point plays, one the hard way, in the waning seconds to make the final score seem a bit closer than reality.
But that was all it was — a mirage.
As he departed the locker room to see the sights (and taste the tastes) of Leavenworth, CHS hoops coach Brad Sherman retained his patented Zen calm.
“We’re starting to win some of the effort game,” he said. “Took charges that were really big for our momentum at key moments – showed a lot of toughness.
“A good team win.”
With his 30 points, Downes cracks the 400-point club.
Jumping from 374 career points to 404, he passes Don Cook (377), James Smith (382), Tom Logan (385), and Blaine Ghormley (393), rising from #67 to #63 on the all-time scoring list for a program launched in 1917.
Murdy (5), Valenzuela (5), Coffman (4), White (4), Anderson (3), and Blouin (3) also scored for Coupeville, with Oldenstadt, Davidson, and Nick Guay putting in quality floor time.
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