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Posts Tagged ‘Boys Basketball’

Hardwood heroes learning under fire

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 3, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Cole White kick-starts the offense. (Morgan White photo)

The first surge, they overcame. The second was a crippler.

Playing with fiery intensity Saturday night, the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball squad pushed visiting Lakewood hard.

But while the Wolves survived a 12-0 Cougar run early, they couldn’t overcome a hail of three-balls in the third quarter, which turned a four-point game into a 16-point deficit.

The result?

A 77-61 non-conference loss to a 2A school, but a defeat which could pay huge benefits down the road.

The Wolves, now 0-2 on the young season, open with a tough non-league schedule.

The goal is to help shape a new-look team under fire, to get them ready to defend their title once Northwest 2B/1B League play starts in January.

The early games, which continue next week with a road trip to Tacoma to play Concordia Christian Academy, followed by a home game with Sultan, is the gauntlet set up to build a strong Wolf team.

And that strong team is already here, at least in parts, as Coupeville played Lakewood to a virtual standstill if you toss out the third quarter.

Having fought back from a 14-point deficit, the Wolves went to the half on the high of a 14-4 run.

It was fueled by seven points off the bench from junior Nick Guay, with the final bucket a three-ball which tickled the twines a millisecond ahead of the buzzer.

The Wolves had whipped the ball around the arc, keeping the leather moving and away from Lakewood defenders, before Guay stepped up and made all the fans scream.

Coming on the heels of another trey, this one from Ryan Blouin, and a short jumper from Cole White off a feed from rumbling big man William Davidson, Guay’s buzzer-beater cut the margin to 32-28.

Coupeville, which got a huge spark on both ends of the floor from Jonathan Valenzuela, looked ready to go toe-to-toe, and shot-for-shot, with Lakewood.

Until the Cougars started dropping daggers.

Led by Benjamin Rucker, who popped five three-balls as part of a game-high 23-point performance, Lakewood suddenly couldn’t miss from long distance as the second half began.

Valenzuela slapped home a pair of buckets, before Logan Downes went off for Coupeville’s next nine points, but the Cougars were collecting two baskets for every one the Wolves scored.

In a game in which the two teams tallied the same exact number of points in the second and fourth quarter, and Lakewood was narrowly ahead 18-14 at the end of the first frame, the third quarter was fatal.

The Cougars finished the eight-minute span with a 25-13 advantage, and the die was cast.

Coupeville still fought impressively in the fourth quarter, from Downes getting back on defense to deliver a resounding blocked shot, to Alex Murdy converting a pair of steals into breakaway buckets.

Three Wolves — Chase Anderson, Jermiah Copeland, and Davidson — notched their first varsity points as well, but CHS ultimately couldn’t get its deficit back down to single digits.

While Rucker finished with 23, Downes almost matched him, tossing in 16 of his team-high 22 points in the second half.

Many of his buckets came on bold rampages through the paint, as the junior crashed hard to the hoop again and again, often with the refs ignoring the multitude of defender arms hitting him in the face.

Valenzuela, who snatched rebounds off the glass and prowled like a panther unleashed, finished with 10 points for CHS, with White (8), Guay (7), and Murdy (6) also coming strong.

Blouin (3), Anderson (2), Copeland (2), and Davidson (1) rounded out the offense, while Dominic Coffman and Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim provided a defensive spark.

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“I ain’t never lost a kid!”

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on December 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Trent Diamanti (top) and Mike Duke have a story to tell.

This is NOT a story about a landmark moment in Coupeville High School basketball history.

No, it’s better than that.

This is one of those side stories about shenanigans and kismet, a tale told by those involved, and told in their own words.

It’s winter, sometime during the 2004-2005 boys’ hoops season, and our heroes are Mike Duke and Trent Diamanti, who have both gone on to become coaches and semi-responsible adults.

Featuring a wordless cameo from longtime Coupeville hoops coach Randy King, who will undoubtedly believe I made the whole thing up.

The locale? South Whidbey High School.

The time? After a game between the Wolves and Falcons.

And scene.

 

Trent Diamanti:

Well, we had an away game in South Whidbey and at some point, Mike and I went to wander around and talk – it really was that innocent.

And we lost track of time and ended up in a courtyard and suddenly realized it was past the time when the buses would be leaving.

 

Mike Duke:

Locked in a court with some sort of event going on in the South Whidbey commons.

It took way too long to realize we were locked outside and right when we did … off in the distance we see the bus leaving campus.

This was all obviously before fancy phones and text messaging available to everyone.

I believe it was the South Whidbey JV coach that gave us a ride to the Greenbank store.

Where we were going to call one of our parents to come get us, but the girls’ team was coming back from a game at King’s or something on the ferry side and we got a ride home with them.

 

Trent Diamanti:

Mr. King — bless his heart — either didn’t do a head count or forgot the number it was supposed to be.

I had a cell phone but no service.

There was some event going on in the high school and we started BANGING on the door for this old guy to let us in and he sauntered over as casual as could be.

 

Mike Duke:

If we are throwing people under the bus, I believe it was Blake Day who told coach that we went home with Trent’s dad.

 

Trent Diamanti:

Really took his time. So when he finally opened the door we sprinted past and saw the buses had left.

 

Mike Duke:

Sauntered is the perfect word. He reacted as though we were the first zombies in a George Romero movie.

 

Trent Diamanti:

So, the JV coach gave us a ride and somehow, we caught up with the girl’s bus.

Turned out the boy’s bus figured out we weren’t there and didn’t catch a ride about halfway.

I think the girl’s bus driver radioed the boy’s one to let them know they had us.

The funny part was we were afraid of being in trouble (at least I was, partly cause this was such a typical Trent thing, to lose track of time and get lost) but it was Mr. King who was super embarrassed.

 

Mike Duke:

The girl’s bus has no idea. They just stopped at the store to do the like south side kiddo drop off that they did for players that lived in that area.

 

Trent Diamanti:

Yeah, it was super lucky.

 

Mike Duke:

Oh yeah FOR SURE thought we were going to have to run all the suicides. 😆

 

Trent Diamanti:

I still don’t get service on my phone at South Whidbey High School…

Turns out it’s VERY IMPORTANT for coaches/teachers to keep track of all the kids under their charge. Something Coach Duke has NO IDEA ABOUT.  😆

 

Mike Duke:

It’s not that difficult.

I don’t like to brag or toot my own horn, but I’ve coached now 12 seasons of soccer between boys and girls at the varsity level … and I AINT NEVER LOST A KID hahaha 😆

 

Trent Diamanti:

I’ve lost kids but they weren’t my offspring, so it wasn’t a big deal … joking!

 

Mike Duke:

Hahaha

 

And this postscript, from the CHS girls’ basketball coach at the time.

 

Greg Oldham:

In my recollection, Coach King left at least one player behind every season.

“If they live, they live.”

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Scrappy Wolves clash with private school power

Posted in Boys Basketball, Middle School, tagged , , , , on December 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Riley Lawless powers through the paint. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

No fear.

King’s has supreme name value in the basketball world, but the Coupeville Middle School boys didn’t back down at all Thursday afternoon.

While the Wolves lost all three games on their home court, they hung tough in two of the bouts, and had flashes of strong play in the other.

How the day played out:

 

Level 1:

Coupeville fought King’s virtually even in the second half, but a couple of first-half breakdowns ultimately doomed the Wolves in a 48-29 loss.

CMS came out with a nice intensity, jumping to a 5-2 lead after a three-point play the hard way from Jayden McManus and a basket in the paint off the fingertips of Riley Lawless.

The Knights responded by employing a full-court press, and flustered the Wolves a bit, however.

With most of its buckets coming on plays in which it was out and running, converting turnovers into breakaways, King’s closed the first quarter on a 13-2 run.

Coupeville responded with a three-ball from Carson Grove to open the second frame, cutting its deficit back to 15-10.

Then, the baskets dried up for a bit, as the Wolves failed to hit another field goal over the final six minutes-plus of the half.

A pair of free throws in the waning moments — one each from Nic Laska and Lawless — broke the cold spell, but CMS found itself down 28-12 at the break.

King’s stretched its lead to 35-14 midway through the third quarter, before the Wolves responded with an 11-0 surge of their own.

Chayse Van Velkinburgh hit a sweet runner in the paint, lobbing the ball high up and over a defender’s outstretched arms, then McManus knocked down three straight buckets to end the third quarter.

One came on a smooth move in the paint, another off of a steal, and the third on an offensive rebound put back up and in under extreme pressure.

Toss in a three-ball from Van Velkinburgh to open the final frame, and things were getting considerably more interesting for Wolf fans.

It wasn’t to be, though, as the Knights proved to be strong closers, capping things with a 13-4 rally which included a trio of three-balls and a couple of put-backs off of rebounds.

While King’s played platoon ball — subbing in a fresh five players at a time — Coupeville got by with just seven warriors, with its starters playing most of the minutes.

McManus, back on the floor after missing a game with illness, paced the Wolves with 13 points, while Lawless (7), Van Velkinburgh (5), Grove (3), and Laska (1) also scored.

Joshua Stockdale gave CMS a burst of energy off the bench, with Davin Houston hitting the boards with savage intensity.

 

Level 2:

The roughest game of the day for the Wolves, as they absorbed a 46-8 loss.

King’s threw down the first 28 points of the contest, before Nathan Niewald broke free for an end-to-end run which resulted in a crowd-pleasing layup.

Coupeville’s remaining points came courtesy of three-balls from sharpshooters Roger Merino-Martinez and Liam Lawson.

Making his season debut, Merino-Martinez was a fireball on both ends of the floor, also picking up a blocked shot on a play in which he chased down a rival shooter who thought he was free to rumble.

Spoiler: he was not.

Dylan Robinett, Hunter Atteberry, Cyrus Sparacio, Jacob Barajas, Kenneth Jacobsen, and Charles Hart rounded out the rotation for the Wolves, who fought hard and remained scrappy until the final buzzer.

 

Level 3:

Take away the first quarter, and this was a brawl.

The visitors used a 10-1 surge in the opening frame, then hung on for a 31-15 victory in a game that got more competitive the further it went.

Coupeville put together its best seven-minute stretch in the third quarter, with Sparacio and Merino-Martinez splashing three-balls on back-to-back trips down the floor.

The Wolves spread out their offense between four players, with Merino-Martinez rattling the rims for five points, while Johnathan Jacobsen (4), Barajas (3), and Sparacio (3) flipped the net.

Khanor Jump, Zach Blitch, Atteberry, Dillin Kastner, Kenneth Jacobsen, and Jacob Meadors also saw floor time for Coupeville, which plays its next two games on the road.

CMS heads to Granite Falls Dec. 5, then visits Northshore Christian Dec. 7.

Zach Blitch keeps a watchful eye on his man in a recent game.

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Opening night lessons for new-look Wolves

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on December 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »

CHS players listen to coach Brad Sherman during a timeout. (Michelle Glass photo)

This is its own thing.

The Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team put together a season for the ages last time around.

Winning league and bi-district crowns en route to their first trip to state since 1988, the Wolves were the last unbeaten 2B team in the land, winners of 16 straight to open the 2021-2022 campaign.

That won’t happen this time around.

Instead, a new-look Coupeville squad starts at 0-1, after falling 62-54 Wednesday at South Whidbey.

The non-conference loss, coming against a strong-shooting Falcon squad which features nine seniors on its roster, doesn’t have to be a crippler, however.

The Wolves don’t start league play until January, and the chance to hone their game against schools from larger classifications, such as 1A South Whidbey, could be invaluable.

If nothing else, Coupeville showed nice resilience, overcoming a poor performance at the free-throw line and the occasional growing pains of a roster in flux to rally several times.

Trailing by as many as 18 points in the second half, the Wolves kicked up their defensive effort and cut the deficit down to single digits more than once.

The rise in intensity was highlighted by the work of Cole White and Chase Anderson, who flustered the Falcons by relentlessly fighting for control of every loose ball and challenging South Whidbey’s ability to push the ball up court.

Anderson, a freshman, hit the court late with the knowledge he had five fouls to burn, and burn most of them he did, thoroughly getting under the skin of his rivals.

As the Falcons grew ever more frustrated with his refusal to step back, The Magic Man never flinched, his eyes burning a hole through their fragile psyches, before calmly strolling away, a whisper of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

The late defensive stand made up for some struggles in the beginning.

Coupeville actually outshot South Whidbey from the three-point line, winning the trey battle 7-6 by the end of the night.

But while that’s a cold, hard fact, every single one of the Falcon three-balls seemed to be a gut-punch.

None hurt worse than a miracle shot which splashed home a half of a tick before the halftime buzzer roared, pushing an eight-point South Whidbey lead to 11 as the teams left the court.

Unless it was the very next Falcon three-ball, which dropped through the net mere moments into the third quarter, sparking a 12-5 run which lifted the hosts to a 44-26 advantage.

South Whidbey led from start to finish, pushing out to an 18-11 lead after one quarter of play, and Coupeville failed to score back-to-back buckets until late in the second quarter.

The Wolves had their moments early, whether it was White popping a short jumper off of a William Davidson rebound and dish, or Ryan Blouin nailing a three-ball for his first varsity points.

But CHS couldn’t put together a sustained run for much of the night, and each time it almost did, South Whidbey stuck a quick dagger in to blunt the rally.

Wolf junior gunner Logan Downes came to life in the second half, rampaging through the paint and arcing moon shots, collecting 17 of his team-high 25 points after halftime.

That included a trio of third quarter three-balls, while running mate Alex Murdy flipped the nets on a pair of late treys.

Coupeville got as close as 58-51 late in the fourth, after Jonathan Valenzuela hauled in a pinpoint pass from Downes and slapped home a layup over a forest of Falcon arms.

But it wasn’t to be, as South Whidbey closed out the game at the charity stripe and was ruthlessly efficient.

Downes was the lone Wolf to hit double digits with his 25 points, while White (9), Murdy (8), Nick Guay (5), Valenzuela (4), and Blouin (3) chipped in.

Zane Oldenstadt, Davidson, and Anderson also saw floor time for Coupeville, which hosts 2A Lakewood Saturday.

Tip time for the varsity boys is 7:00 PM.

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JV boys romp to rivalry win

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on November 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Aiden O’Neill (left) and Malachi Somes helped spark Coupeville JV basketball to an opening night win. (Photo courtesy Ashley Blouin)

The young guns were firing on all cylinders.

Peppering host South Whidbey Wednesday, the Coupeville High School JV boys’ basketball team romped to a 62-46 win in the season opener for both teams.

Under the watchful eye of head coach Hunter Smith, the Wolves roared out to a big lead, before coasting home for the Island rivalry triumph.

With six different players knocking down buckets in the opening frame, CHS surged to an 18-3 lead by the end of the first quarter, driving a stake through the heart of Falcon Nation.

South Whidbey rallied a bit after that, (slightly) cutting the margin to 27-14 at the half, but the Wolves had an answer at every turn.

A 17-16 edge in the third quarter kept the lead at 44-30, before sophomore sensation Hunter Bronec threw down 10 of his game-high 20 points in the final period to seal the deal.

Seven Wolves etched their names in the scorebook, with Chase Anderson banking in 11 points and Hurlee Bronec rippling the nets for 10 more.

Aiden O’Neill (9), Johnny Porter (8), Carson Field (2), and Jack Porter (2) rounded out the offensive attack, while Yohannon Sandles, Mikey Robinett, and Malachi Somes also saw floor time for Coupeville.

The young Wolves get right back at it Saturday when they host Lakewood in another non-conference tilt, with the JV boys tipping at 5:15 PM.

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