Chase Anderson moved from #13 to #10 on the CHS boys’ basketball career scoring chart Friday. (Julie Wheat photo)
They almost shook everything up.
Squaring off with Northwest 2B/1B League heavyweight Orcas Island Friday, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball squad overcame a substantial foul disparity and a second-quarter defensive letdown to push the Vikings to their limit.
But it wasn’t to be, as the visitors held on late to claim a 64-54 win and stay alive in the battle for a conference crown.
The loss drops Coupeville to 3-4 in league play, 6-9 overall, while Orcas gets to 6-1 in NWL action.
Brad Sherman’s squad heads to Mount Vernon Christian this coming Tuesday to face off with the league’s top team, before hosting last place La Conner Friday on Senior Night.
Friday’s fracas started with a brief road bump, as Orcas hit a pair of three-balls en route to claiming an early 10-2 lead.
After that it was Coupeville’s turn to get torrid behind the arc, as Chase Anderson drilled a pair of treys and Camden Glover splashed home another one across a two-minute span.
Closing the quarter on a 14-4 run, the Wolves claimed their first lead of the night at 16-14 thanks to some precision free throw shooting from Riley Lawless.
The CHS big man scored before actually playing a single second, as he replaced Anderson, who got crunched in the face while driving hard to the hoop.
With his teammate getting looked at in the locker room, then returning with an ice pack, Lawless inherited Anderson’s free throws.
He hit one, then promptly yanked down a rebound on the next play and earned two more charity shots of his own, both of which he drained.
Anderson returned to the lineup to start the second frame, and the Wolves ripped off three straight buckets to cap a 14-0 run and open a 22-14 lead.
The baskets came fast and furious, with Malachi Somes and Davin Houston banging home layups off of passes from Anderson and Carson Grove, respectively, before Anderson took a steal coast-to-coast.
But as suddenly as the offense began to flow, it stopped.
Taking advantage of a steady stream of foul calls on the Wolves, Orcas hit free throw after free throw and slow-crawled its way to its own 16-0 spurt, reclaiming the lead at 30-22.
The bleakness finally stopped as Anderson banked in a bucket a half-tick before the halftime buzzer, and the teams played a back-and-forth brawl in the third.
Glover and Anderson connected on three-balls on consecutive trips down the floor, but Coupeville could never quite regain the advantage.
From seven points down, the Wolves got back to within 41-38 by the end of the period, thanks to a jumper from Liam Blas and two more free throws from Lawless, but that was as close as CHS could get.
Blas rippled the nets on his own three-ball early in the fourth quarter, but Orcas responded with a 9-0 run to push the lead out to 52-41.
Down the stretch, the Wolves hung tough, cutting the deficit to 58-54 with under a minute to play, only to see the Vikings refuse to buckle.
Overall, Coupeville won the side battles, hitting seven treys to three by Orcas, while also shooting a higher percentage at the free throw line (9-12 vs. 16-23 for the Vikings).
Anderson led all scorers with 24 points, while Glover (11), Blas (5), Somes (5), Lawless (5), Grove (2), and Houston (2) also tallied points and Easton Green and Aiden O’Neill rounded out the rotation.
It was a historical night for Anderson, as he jumped from #13 to #10 on the CHS boys’ basketball career scoring chart for a program in its 109th season.
With 871 points and counting, he slid past Bill Jarrell (855), Arik Garthwaite (867), and Denny Clark (869), with the last of that trio having been a top 10 career scorer since 1964.
Heading into Tuesday’s tilt at MVC, Anderson is three points behind the #9 all-time scorer — his coach, Brad Sherman.
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