Grady Rickner was one of four Wolves who scored in double digits Saturday afternoon. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
What a week.
Three wins in four days, with the latest triumph coming Saturday on Orcas Island, has carried the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball team into first-place in the Northwest 2B/1B League.
Using a withering defense, and the second 38-point performance this season from junior sharpshooter Hawthorne Wolfe, CHS rolled to a resounding 86-56 win.
Payback for an early-season loss to the Vikings, the victory lifts the Wolves to 6-3 and gives them total control of their own destiny.
While Mount Vernon Christian has the same 6-3 record as Coupeville, the Wolves swept the season series from the Hurricanes, giving them an edge.
CHS also has three games left to play, while MVC only has two, having declined to host Orcas Island this season after that school requested no fans be present during the ongoing pandemic.
Friday Harbor, which comes to Whidbey Tuesday, June 8, and Orcas, whose season ended prematurely and in flames Saturday, sit at 5-3, with La Conner at 4-4.
Darrington (2-3) and Concrete (0-9) — which are Coupeville’s final two foes — round out the league standings.
Coupeville entered this week with a .500 record, but that was very deceptive.
The Wolves were essentially two plays from being 5-1 and not 3-3, with their only solid loss coming when Orcas went bonkers from behind the three-point line for one quarter.
Saturday, CHS coach Brad Sherman preached defense, defense, and more defense, and his players took it to heart, shutting down the Vikings snipers and never allowing them to find a rhythm.
“Great team basketball today,” Sherman said. “Proud of how our guys are coming together – especially on the defensive end.
“They worked their tails off this week!”
By contrast, Wolfe and his running mates were feeling it, and then some, combining to rain down 12 three-balls.
Eight of those came from the high-flying, jitterbugging Hawk, who was in full-on Pistol Pete Maravich mode, while Xavier Murdy netted two, and Logan Martin and Daniel Olson also flipped the nets from distance.
For that matter, everything was dropping for Coupeville.
Inside, outside, from the parking lot. Didn’t matter.
As long as it wasn’t a free throw, as the Wolves only went to the line once — a season-low from a squad which often shoots a lot of charity shots.
But then again, that’s probably because CHS launched most of its shots before the Orcas defense could get set long enough to consider fouling anyone.
Grady Rickner opened the scoring with a pair of quick runners, but the Wolves found themselves in a hole, for the briefest of moments.
Cue the tsunami.
Martin swished an in-close jumper, launching a game-busting 14-0 run which included Wolfe’s first two treys, and the floodgates were open.
Both Murdy boys were on fire, with Alex soaring in for a breakaway layup off a Hawk pass, followed by Xavier pump-faking his defender into the stands before rolling hard to the hoop for a bucket.
Strollin’ and rollin’ to his own unique beat, Wolfe delivered the dagger.
Boppin’ up court, he watched the clock tick down, then spun and made sweet love to the net, nailing a very-long, buzzer-beating three-ball which sent the Coupeville JV players into a screaming fit.
Coupeville kept shooting, kept hitting, and kept harassing the life out of the Vikings while on defense, sending the lead out to 42-29 at the half.
Olson, a senior who has found his niche using his long arms to shut down opponent’s passing lanes, tossed in five points in the second frame, as CHS spread out the offensive love.
Just in case they forgot about him, Wolfe emerged from the locker room with a slight smile on his face and a burning desire to put on a shooting clinic for all gathered.
Rifling four successful shots from behind the arc, with at least two of those from a distance Steph Curry would have approved of, Wolfe outscored Orcas 16-11 in the third quarter.
Add buckets for Martin, Grady Rickner, and both Xavier and Alex Murdy, and the rout was on.
Six players scored in the final quarter as Coupeville stretched the final margin to 30, sending an emphatic message out to what has been a very-competitive league.
Wolfe’s 38 matches his total from the season-opener at MVC, and is just 10 off of the school single-game record of 48, set by Jeff Stone in the pre-three-ball world of 1970.
With the scoring burst, Hawk hit several milestones Saturday, joining the 600-point club, moving from #36 to #30 on the CHS boys career scoring list, and passing one of his coaches as he did so.
Now with 625 points and counting, Wolfe skips past Gabe McMurray (592), Mike Syreen (594), Brian Miller (597), Joe Whitney (601), current CHS assistant coach Greg White (604), and John O’Grady (611).
And he wasn’t the only Coupeville player to crack an exclusive club, as Xavier Murdy tossed in 12, giving him 204 varsity points.
The Wolves had four players in double figures, with Grady Rickner and Alex Murdy each going off for 10, while Olson and Martin netted seven apiece.
Sage Downes sank Coupeville’s remaining bucket, with Logan Downes and TJ Rickner getting floor time for the surging Wolves.
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