Aiden O’Neill slashes to the hoop. (Julie Wheat photo)
Three games into a new season, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team is still looking for its first victory.
But Saturday’s razor-thin 45-43 non-conference defeat to visiting Eastside Prep, a game which literally hung in the balance until the final tenth of a second, was a big step forward for the Wolves.
Coupeville, which hasn’t had its complete roster together at any point yet, in games or practices, is learning under duress, but getting tougher each time out.
Saturday was proof of that, as Brad Sherman’s 2B squad weathered an early run by a 1A team that was quick on the floor, and quick to complain, with the Cow Town hoops stars putting themselves into position to win or force overtime on the game’s final play.
And while that final shot — on which Chase Anderson had to sprint from one end of the floor to the other as the final four seconds flew off the clock — failed to drop, it still provided a final jolt of electricity to warm the cold weekend gym.
Eastside Prep, coming off a narrow loss to South Whidbey the night before, came to town riled up.
The Eagles were quick, they were occasionally dynamic, and their GQ-looking coaches filled up the air with enough complaints you might have thought they were auditioning for gigs with old-school Wolf private school rivals like King’s or Archbishop Thomas Murphy.
Up 10-2 in the early going, the whining was academic at first, then got pronouncedly more frequent as Coupeville suddenly started blowing up Eastside’s plans.
Anderson came up from beneath the hoop to split two defenders for a bucket, then fired a long outlet pass to a rampaging Camden Glover for a breakaway, and the rally was underway.
Coupeville closed the first quarter with seven straight points, the final two on a pullup jumper by Glover right in the face of his defender, before opening the second with back-to-back buckets.
In front 13-10 after the surge, which also featured some rough ‘n tumble defense from Mahkai Myles, Liam Blas, Davin Houston, and Glover, CHS showed it wouldn’t back down easy.
Neither would Eastside, however, as the Eagles combined slashing guards with a burly lumberjack-style dude clogging up the paint to battle the Wolves bucket for bucket.
Camden Glover delivered a standout performance on both ends of the floor Saturday afternoon. (Photo courtesy Stevie Glover)
Glover, who is a bit of a beast down low himself, showed off some surprisingly fleet feet, chasing down a runaway Eagle from behind and belting his would-be shot off the back wall of the gym, setting off his fan club of devoted lil’ kids.
While Eastside clung to a 21-18 lead at the half, the Wolves went ahead 22-21 shortly into the third, only to have the Eagles bounce back with a 7-0 run.
From there, it was two teams standing in the middle of the floor, whaling on each other, waiting to see who would buckle first. Answer: neither of them.
Glover and running mate Aiden O’Neill both rippled the net on three-balls, as the Wolves fought back from seven down early in the fourth to tie things up at 42-42 in the waning moments.
That set up a final 30 seconds that had passion, gusto, and, unfortunately, one big shot from Eastside Prep’s lumberjack, Vlad Guz, as he crashed into the paint for a back-breaking layup delivered through a forest of arms.
A free throw got Coupeville back within 44-43, but an Eagle freebie made it 45-43.
When Eastside’s second charity shot slid off the rim, the Wolves snatched the rebound, but had no timeouts left, forcing Anderson to try and go the length of the floor while being hacked every step of the way.
An unbalanced shot, thrown up on a dead run, came tantalizingly close, but there would be no miracles on this day.
Tomorrow, possibly, but not today.
Playing his second game of the season after missing the opener with injuries, Anderson tossed in a game-high 22 points.
That carries the Wolf senior to 638 points and moves him from #32 to #29 on the CHS boys’ basketball career scoring chart, which covers 109 seasons.
Anderson passed all-timers Wiley Hesselgrave (632), Kramer O’Keefe (636), and Rich Morris (637) Saturday, while Glover, who went for 12, raised his own career total to 139 points — passing Wolf JV coach (and Chase’s dad) Craig Anderson (132) on the list.
Myles (4), O’Neill (3), and Sage Arends (2) rounded out the scorers, with Blas, Riley Lawless, Houston, and Easton Green also seeing floor time for the Wolves.
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