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Posts Tagged ‘Chimacum’

Night of 1,000 stars, and 1,000 buckets!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Ethan Spark threw down a season-high 27 points Friday as Coupeville crushed Chimacum 81-34. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

   Bob Barker (left), longtime coach and teacher, and Jeff Stone, who still holds most of the school’s scoring records 48 years later, returned Friday for the 101st anniversary of Wolf basketball.

When the legends come to watch you play, you bring your A-game.

Attacking relentlessly, the Coupeville High School boys basketball squad went for a season-high in points Friday, thrashing visiting Chimacum 81-34 on the 101st anniversary of the first hoops game in school history.

The win, which played out in front of a who’s-who of former Wolf hardwood players, coaches, managers, time keepers, stat counters and cheerleaders, lifts CHS to 3-2 in Olympic League play, 5-10 overall.

With Klahowya shocking top dog Port Townsend 52-51 Friday, that sets the stage for an important showdown Saturday in Silverdale.

If the Wolves knock off the Eagles (4-1), they’ll force a three-way tie for first with Klahowya and Port Townsend (4-2).

Chimacum, which is suffering through a rebuilding season, sits at 0-6 in conference action.

Friday night was about the past, present and future of Wolf basketball coming together, and it brought a jolt of electricity to the CHS gym which has been largely absent in recent years.

Eight decades of former players were in attendance, from Al Sherman, who played in the late ’40s, up to the current generation of shooting stars.

A large portion of the 1969-1970 Wolves, the first Whidbey Island boys hoops team to win a district title and still the best offensive team in school history, took the court at halftime.

Along with them came almost every one of the top 15 career scorers, with #3 scorer Randy Keefe moving like he was still playing back in the ’70s.

The irrepressible gunner sprinted out to center court upon introduction, pumping his arms and sending the crowd into convulsions.

From Jeff Stone to Jeff Rhubottom, Bill Riley to Arik Garthwaite, the packed house welcomed home Wolf greats, with the biggest cheers going to legendary coach Bob Barker.

Looking dapper in the red blazer he once wore on the sidelines, the man who led Coupeville to its greatest basketball heights, while influencing generations of athletes and students alike, was mobbed.

As he held court, shaking hands and accepting hugs, Barker might have been in a different gym than the one in which he once coached, but one thing was certain — he was home.

With all the hubbub around them, it might have been easy for the current Wolves to lose focus, especially facing a struggling foe.

Instead, they came out and played up to the crowd, instead of down to the opponent.

Ethan Spark curled in a pair of long three-balls, each one coming from opposite sides of the court, to kick things off and the Wolves were unstoppable.

With Spark (11) and Hunter Smith (8) combining for 19 points in the opening quarter, Coupeville roared out to a 21-4 bulge at the first break.

From there, the massacre was on.

Playing in front of a lot of guys who never got three points on a single shot, no matter how far away from the basket they shot, the modern-day Wolves rained down treys, hitting 12.

Spark knocked down six, sophomore swing player Mason Grove went bonkers, hitting four in limited time, while Joey Lippo and Cameron Toomey-Stout also netted three-balls.

If the game was ever in doubt (it wasn’t), the Wolves settled that with a 25-3 surge in the second quarter.

Six different players scored during that run, with the prettiest basket coming from Jered Brown.

The sophomore guard snagged a loose ball, led a sprint down the floor, then went airborne and rolled under a defender while being hacked. Brown’s reverse layup splashed home, and so did the ensuing free throw.

By the time the current Wolves were ready to cede the floor so the legends in attendance could have their halftime celebration, Coupeville had scored an eye-popping 31 points in the second quarter and led 52-17.

The only thing helping Chimacum in the second half was a running clock, triggered when CHS opened a 40-point lead, which put the Cowboys out of their misery quicker.

Coupeville finished with balanced scoring across the board, with eight of the 10 guys who saw the court putting their name in the books.

Spark rained down a season-high 27, while Smith added 20.

Both seniors hit milestones, with Spark passing the 300-point career barrier (he has 315 and counting) and Smith moving into 15th place on the career scoring chart.

Smith’s 20 gives him 745, and he passed Dan Nieder (729) and Steve Whitney (730), while pulling within 15 points of catching Hunter Hammer (759) for 14th.

Grove singed the nets for 14, Brown banged down seven, Lippo and Toomey-Stout each added five, and rebound-happy hard workers Hunter Downes (2) and Kyle Rockwell (1) rounded out the scoring.

Dane Lucero and Gavin Knoblich also saw floor time.

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Bring the pain, bring the joy!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, Middle School, tagged , , , , on January 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Aiden Burdge saw action in two CMS hoops games Thursday, scoring eight in the JV contest. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

X marks the spot of your destruction.

With Xavier Murdy rolling off 14 consecutive points at one stretch Thursday, hitting on a variety of inside and outside shots, the Coupeville Middle School varsity boys basketball squad cruised to its fifth-straight win.

Blowing open a semi-close game in the second half, the Wolves crushed visiting Chimacum 56-26 to improve to 6-2 on the season.

In the opener, the Wolf JV carried a lead into the fourth quarter, then couldn’t buy a bucket and faded to a 34-26 loss.

Varsity:

Chimacum led for the very briefest of moments at 6-5 two minutes into the game, than X-Man dropped the boom.

The game-clinching play came fast and it came with an explosive bang.

Out on the run, Grady Rickner threaded a pair of Cowboy defenders, then dished the rock to Murdy, who slashed to the hoop and slapped home the go-ahead lay up.

Followed a few seconds later by a long three-ball off of the fingertips of Logan Martin, who was actually the leading scorer in the first quarter with seven points, it broke Chimacum’s spirit.

The Cowboys very will to live? That went shortly thereafter, thanks to an astonishing bit of work by the hyped-up Wolves.

With the clock racing madly to 0:00 in the first, Hawthorne Wolfe sailed into a pack of rivals to snatch away a loose ball, then spun the orb over his head.

Some will say he was just launching a prayer and had no clue where the ball would land.

Others would say, give in and believe the hype, Wolfe knew exactly what he was doing, and he was playing three-dimensional chess while Chimacum was still learning how to play checkers.

Either way, Wolfe’s tip landed smack-dab in Martin’s waiting hands, and the CMS 8th grader caught it, went airborne and launched a flawless jumper from the top of the key in one smoother-than-smooth motion.

Splat, ball hits nothing but net, buzzer rings, ref signals basket, crowd goes bonkers and the Cowboy tears hit the ground like the raindrops outside — fast, furious and in the thousands.

Up 18-9 at the first break, Coupeville stretched it out to 27-16 at halftime, with Murdy pounding home back-to-back buckets on power moves in the paint to cap things.

That was just the tip of the iceberg, however.

Having picked up a few halftime shooting tips from former Wolf scoring ace Allen Black, Murdy came out on fire to open the third.

First, he tip-toed down the baseline and threw up a reverse layup, then came a power bucket set up by a steal-and-dish from Wolfe, who was in full whirlwind mode.

Not content to stop there, Murdy swished back-to-back three-balls from the deepest part of the right corner, with one taking a jaw-dropping bounce to the heavens, before somehow catching a very forgiving part of the rim and promptly flopping through the bottom of the net.

Having rattled off 14 straight points by himself at that point, X-Man turned the highlight reel over to Wolfe, who tossed in an uncanny bank shot using his left hand, to cap a Chimacum-shredding 16-0 run.

The Cowboys had no answers, mostly trying to stay out of the way of the rampaging Wolves.

Whether it was Caleb Meyer, rocking a ’70s-style headband to hold back his curly hair while dropping in elegant finger rolls, or Murdy pump-faking a defender into the parking lot on a late bucket, CMS had everything working.

The only thing keeping the score down at the end was Coupeville’s sense of honor, as Wolfe ripped off three straight steals at the end, but circled back around and worked time off the clock instead of throwing down needless breakaway layups.

That left him with 16 points on the afternoon, while Murdy paced the Wolves with 20.

Meyer had eight, Martin netted seven (and a ton of rebounds), Rickner tickled the twines for five and Cody Roberts, Aiden Burdge and Gabe Shaw delivered hustle, defense and intangibles.

CMS wraps its season with a home game against Sequim Jan. 17, then a road trip to Port Angeles Jan. 18 to face Stevens.

After avenging an early-season loss to Forks a week ago, the finale gives the Wolves an opportunity to get payback for their only other defeat.

JV:

The first half was great, as Coupeville used a 20-5 run to turn an early six-point deficit into a nine-point lead at the break.

With Burdge, a swing player, draining eight points in the two quarters he was allotted, the Wolves built a 20-11 lead and seemed to be in control.

Things didn’t change much in the third, as Damon Stadler slapped home a rebound for a bucket right before the buzzer, sending CMS into the fourth up 26-19.

Unfortunately, Stadler’s put-back would be the last time the Wolves scored.

While Coupeville couldn’t get the ball to fall, Chimacum positioned their biggest player under the basket (good thing the refs weren’t enforcing the three-in-the-key rule…) and he spent the quarter grabbing rebounds and putting them back up and in.

Toss in a three-ball, and the Cowboys did, as a wild heave somehow rolled around the rim and flopped through, and the visitors were set.

A 15-0 advantage over the final eight minutes gave Chimacum a season split with the young Wolves (1-7), who are still very much a work in progress.

Burdge paced the JV with eight, while Stadler and Shaw knocked down six apiece.

Defensive wild man Dominic Coffman singed the nets for a quick four and Alex Murdy netted a bucket to round out the scoring.

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Down to the wire!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Wolf freshman Mollie Bailey piled up four rebounds, a steal and a block Wednesday in a JV game which came down to the final minute. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

In a game full of swings, the final one went the wrong way.

Unable to hold on to a late lead Wednesday, the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball squad fell 27-23 in a very-psychical game on the road at Chimacum.

The loss drops the Wolf young guns to 2-2 in Olympic League play, 6-7 overall.

That they were still fighting for a win on the game’s final plays was an accomplishment in itself, as CHS was undermanned once again.

With several varsity players in question due to health concerns, three JV players — Ashlie Shank, Maddy Hilkey and Avalon Renninger — had their time carefully parceled out so they could swing up and join the first unit.

Since the Wolf JV only had eight in uniform to start the night, that left coach Amy King the task of being creative in putting together lineups.

It worked, mostly, as the Wolves hung tough in the first quarter, snatched the lead away in the second, then held on to the advantage until late in the game, when tired legs betrayed them a bit.

Not helping matters was a rival with a reputation for bringing the heat.

“We always know going to Chimacum is going to be a physical and rough game, and tonight was exactly that,” King said.

The Cowboys sprung a 1-3-1 trapping defense on the Wolves, but CHS responded strongly, getting good looks at the basket.

Unfortunately, not enough of those shots dropped.

Tia Wurzrainer carried Coupeville early, knocking down a lay up off of a steal and a “nice little jumper.”

With their own defense set to high intensity, the Wolves held Chimacum scoreless in the second quarter, using a 6-0 mini-run to turn an 8-4 deficit into a 10-8 lead at the half.

Wurzrainer was again the woman on the spot, dropping in a third bucket, while Avalon Renninger put a rebound back up and in to spur on her team.

Shank, smartly using what time she was afforded on JV, was a whirlwind, going off for a team-high eight points, nine rebounds and three steals.

Four of those points came on free throws, including three on the same trip.

Fouled while shooting a three-ball, Shank drilled all of her resulting freebies, repeating a rarity she had also accomplished the night before against Port Townsend.

In a game where both teams struggled at the line (Coupeville was a modest 7-16, while Chimacum was an ungodly 1-16), Shank was the exception.

She finished a flawless 4-4, while the other players on both teams combined to go 4-28.

Up by six headed down the stretch, the Wolves couldn’t keep it going, though, and the Cowboys used a final 13-3 run to steal the win away.

“Going into the fourth, I’m not sure what happened,” King said. “Our defense slowed down and we started to panic. We threw the ball away, threw up shots that weren’t needed and didn’t block out on rebounds.”

Wurzrainer finished with six points to back Shank’s eight, with Renninger (5), Nicole Lester (2), Mollie Bailey (1) and Genna Wright (1) also scoring.

Renninger hit the boards hard for nine rebounds, while Julia García Oñoro and Hilkey chipped in with two rebounds and an assist apiece.

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“Unreal and rough!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , , , on January 10, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Scout Smith and Coupeville led for three quarters Wednesday, but an ice-cold fourth killed their chances. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Like getting put through a wood-chipper for 32 minutes.

Riding high off of a big win the night before, the Coupeville High School girls basketball squad stumbled a bit Wednesday, enduring their own Fargo moment as they were bruised, battered and, finally, shredded 28-20 by host Chimacum.

The loss drops the rebuilding Wolves to 2-2 in Olympic League play, 4-10 overall.

Coupeville, chasing a fourth-straight league title, sits in third place, trailing the Cowboys (3-1, 6-7) and Port Townsend (3-2, 5-7), while Klahowya (0-3, 2-10) brings up the rear.

While this title hunt isn’t going as easy as the previous three, when CHS went 27-0 in conference play, the young, undermanned Wolves are still very much in the thick of things with five league games left on their schedule.

Wednesday night, take away an ice-cold fourth quarter, and despite the bruises and whiplash endured, Coupeville almost pulled off a win that would have elevated them into first place.

But that final eight minutes, when the Wolves failed to score a single point, doomed them.

Despite facing withering pressure, and committing a head-spinning 43 turnovers, Coupeville led 3-2 after one quarter, 8-7 at the half and 20-19 after three.

How they led is something CHS coach David King is still trying to figure out.

That, and how he wandered into a WWE taping instead of a basketball game.

“Unreal and so very rough. I think that’s the only way I can describe tonight’s game,” he said. “Chimacum is aggressive and we wilted against everything they threw at us.

“How good was their press?,” King asked. “According to our play and turnovers, it appears it is a top-tier press. In reality, it’s aggressive and good — we just made them look like all-stars.”

While Chimacum’s defensive heat and willingness to whack a girl certainly helped, most of the Wolves turnovers were self-inflicted, as King ticked off a list of miscues.

“Throwing passes into defensive arms/hands. Overthrowing, throwing behind a teammate or trying to dribble-drive up the court out of control,” he said. “We will go back to the basics and see if we can fix this reoccurring issue.”

Where Coupeville was effective was on the boards, where four different players snared at least seven rebounds.

Lindsey Roberts hauled in 10 caroms, while Allison Wenzel, Ema Smith and Hannah Davidson added seven apiece.

The Wolves shared the offensive load, as well, with Roberts tossing in seven points to lead the way.

Kyla Briscoe (4), Ema Smith (4), Sarah Wright (2), Davidson (2) and Scout Smith (1) rounded out the limited attack.

The game also marked the varsity debut of Wolf juniors Ashlie Shank and Maddy Hilkey.

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How sweet it is!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 10, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Jonathan Partida and the Coupeville JV cruised to a victory Wednesday in front of their home fans. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They started the night with a bang.

Throwing down buckets from every direction Wednesday, with almost every player in uniform scoring, the Coupeville High School JV boys basketball team enjoyed a sweet rout, thrashing visiting Chimacum 47-20.

The lopsided victory snaps an eight-game losing skid dating back to Dec. 1, and lifts the Wolf young guns to 1-2 in Olympic League play, 2-9 overall.

While their record might not reflect it, Coupeville’s second team has been competitive almost every night out, with most games coming down to a handful of buckets.

That wasn’t the case against Chimacum, however, as the Wolves ran wild.

Jean Lund-Olsen slapped down back-to-back layups while flying 110 MPH through the paint to stake CHS to an 8-0 advantage, and the game was essentially over.

Up 14-3 after one quarter, the Wolves stretched the lead out to 28-5 by the halftime break, then sauntered home for the win.

At one point, Coupeville rolled up 20 consecutive points, during a stretch which started a minute into the second quarter and lasted until midway through the third.

What was most impressive was the Wolves desire to share the ball, as six different players scored during that run, and 11 of 13 Wolves tallied points during the game.

The prettiest basket came from Jacobi Pilgrim, who launched himself skyward in pursuit of a rebound right before the half.

Instead of hauling in the ball, the lanky sophomore swing player used his long reach to redirect the ball back up and in, angling it off the backboard for a bucket before returning to Earth.

Freshman gunner Daniel Olson led the offensive attack, raining down 11, while Lund-Olsen banked home eight and Mason Grove singed the nets for seven.

Jake Pease (4), Pilgrim (4), Koa Davison (3), Ulrik Wells (2), David Prescott (2), Sage Downes (2), Gavin Knoblich (2) and Alex Jimenez (2) also scored, while Jonathan Partida and Tucker Hall provided hustle and defense.

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