Hunter Smith knocked down a season-high 34 Tuesday to lift Coupeville past Klahowya in a must-win game. (John Fisken photo)
Too bad Hunter Smith has already won the WIAA Athlete of the Week award this winter.
The Coupeville High School junior put on an award-worthy performance Tuesday night, torching the nets for a game-high 34 to spark the Wolves to a 60-58 win at Klahowya in a game with huge playoff implications.
The win, which came after Coupeville rallied from a seven-point deficit headed into the fourth, lifts CHS to 2-5 in Olympic League play, 2-13 overall.
It also moves them a half game up on Klahowya (1-5, 3-13) for the league’s third and final playoff spot. Having taken two of three against the Eagles this season, the Wolves own the tiebreaker, as well.
Coupeville, which has two league games left — Friday at Chimacum (3-3, 3-10) and Feb. 4 at Port Townsend (7-0, 12-3) — will need to win both, and hope for some help, to catch the Cowboys for second place.
But thanks to Smith, and teammate Gabe Wynn, who pumped in 17 in support, the Wolves now have a serious edge on Klahowya for third place.
Hold on and they will host a loser-out playoff game against the #4 seed from the Nisqually League, which is currently Bellevue Christian.
Both teams came out and put on a show Tuesday, exchanging leads back and forth.
Riding a 13-point outburst from Smith, who had three treys in the early going, Coupeville led 20-15 at the first break.
The Eagles responded, knotting things up at 33 at the half (despite 11 more in the second from Smith), then used a 16-9 third-quarter surge to stake themselves to a 49-42 lead with eight minutes on the clock.
Coupeville hacked away at the lead, sharing the ball between Smith, Wynn, Brian Shank and Ethan Spark, who combined to hit five baskets and, maybe more importantly, eight free throws.
A streaky team at the line, the Wolves were money in the fourth, led by Wynn, who was a sizzlin’ 7 of 8 for the game at the charity stripe.
Klahowya may have been shafted of a chance to tie or win at the end, however, as there was a jump ball called with one second to play.
The clock ran out, and, instead of re-setting the clock at 0:01 and giving the ball to the Eagles, the refs reportedly ankled for the door, leaving local fans frustrated.
The Wolves went with a short bench, getting all of their scoring from Smith (34), Wynn (17), Shank (6) and Spark (3).
Joey Lippo, Steven Cope and Cameron Toomey-Stout delivered quality minutes, with Toomey-Stout coming up with a key fourth quarter steal that turned into a bucket at crunch time.
JV gets battered:
The score wasn’t all that important, as the Wolves had to deal with losing two key players to injury.
Down by one at the half, Coupeville left Sean Toomey-Stout on the sidelines coming out of the locker room (shoulder injury), then lost Jered Brown to a broken collarbone in the third.
After that, “the wheels sort of fell off,” according to JV coach Dustin Van Velkinburgh, and the Wolves eventually lost by 23.
The defeat sends the young guns to 7-8 overall, 2-5 in league play.
Coupeville Sports 