Tucker Hall scored his first varsity points Tuesday as Coupeville crunched Chimacum. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Jacobi Pilgrim rumbles in the paint.
It was sort of like taking medicine.
At first, you get hit with a bitter taste and you wince. But then all the good parts kick in and you start feeling a whole lot better.
After briefly falling behind Tuesday night against visiting Chimacum, the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball players looked deep into their souls, flexed their biceps, and opened a giant can of whup-ass.
Controlling the paint, crashing hard to the hoop, and harassing the Cowboys on defense, the Wolves turned a 10-5 deficit into a 69-43 non-conference win, keeping alive their undefeated run on their home court.
Coupeville is 3-4 on the season, 3-0 in the CHS gym, and 0-4 away from it.
So it could be a good thing the Wolves final two games before winter break — Thursday against Port Townsend and Saturday against Nooksack Valley — are both home affairs.
Continue to get the kind of balanced scoring they did against Chimacum, and things will be just fine.
The Wolves put nine of their 11 active players into the scoring column Tuesday, with the trio of Sean Toomey-Stout (15 points), Ulrik Wells (13), and Hawthorne Wolfe (11) leading the attack.
Chimacum exited the Coupeville gym still winless at 0-6, but the Cowboys showed promise in the early going.
Opening the game with a three-ball from the top of the arc, the visitors held the lead until midway through the first quarter.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it all changed.
Wells banged home a bucket off of an inbounds pass — his third score of the quarter — and the Wolves seized control of things with a 9-0 run to close the frame.
A rainbow three-ball from Wolfe knotted the game at 10-10, before Toomey-Stout got explosive.
The power-packed senior, who plays as if he has springs in the soles of his shoes, knocked down four straight baskets, the final two of the first quarter, and the first two of the next frame.
Toomey-Stout mixed and matched, slapping offensive rebounds back up and off the glass, slashed to the hoop with wild abandon, and went coast-to-coast in .0003 of a second (or close, at least).
Chimacum had no answer for “The Torpedo,” but, even if it had, it probably wouldn’t have mattered, as everyone repping a Wolf uniform was feeling it.
The second quarter, which ended with Coupeville up 38-20, was a series of streaks, with one player after another taking turns and cranking up the highlight reel.
Just off the court, Wolf senior Koa Davison, out with a hurt ankle, repeatedly popped up from his perch in the bleachers to holler for his boys.
Each time the senior big man threw his hands in the air and screamed like he just didn’t care, his crutches clattered to the floor.
Then came a big wince, but also a big smile, as the nattily-dressed Davison, like the rest of the Wolf faithful, was taken over by the joy of the moment.
Gavin Knoblich tossed in three buckets in less than a minute, Jacobi Pilgrim used and abused his defender with back-to-back power moves in the paint, then Wolfe caressed the net with his velvet shot.
The second half was more of the same joy ride for Coupeville, as the Cowboys fought valiantly, only to be chewed up 10,000 different ways by the Wolves.
Whether it was Jered Brown dropping runners over outstretched hands, Knoblich spinning and hitting a sweet hook shot, or Wells playing like a young Shaq in the paint, CHS had pretty much everything clicking.
That carried over to getting senior Tucker Hall his first career varsity points.
A hard-working support crew guy, the kind of smart role player every team desires, Hall slapped home a layup off of a feed from Wells, then sank a soft jumper from the side.
In the fourth quarter, Wolf junior swing player Daniel Olson netted his first varsity bucket of the season, while sophomore Grady Rickner, who leads the JV in scoring, made his varsity debut.
Along with Toomey-Stout, Wells, and Wolfe, who combined for 39 points, Coupeville got scoring from Knoblich (9), Brown (7), Pilgrim (6), Hall (4), Jean Lund-Olsen (2), and Olson (2), with Rickner and Chris Ruck seeing floor time.
As he basked in the afterglow of the win, CHS coach Brad Sherman was in a good place.
“I was really pleased; we talk to the guys in practice about getting to the rim and finishing strong, and they did that very well across the board,” he said.
“We came out a little flat, but they responded with a lot of energy,” Sherman added. “Everyone on the team did something great tonight, which I love to see, especially playing in front of our home crowd.”
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