Defensive dynamo Cameron Toomey-Stout scored a season-high seven points Wednesday as Coupeville clobbered Chimacum. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
It wasn’t especially pretty, but we’ll overlook that.
Bouncing back after a rough loss a night before, the Coupeville High School boys basketball squad used a fiery fourth quarter Wednesday at home to stuff pesky Chimacum, nabbing a 67-43 win.
The victory, which was finally sealed with a 20-6 run over the final eight minutes, lifts the Wolves to 2-1 in Olympic League play, 4-8 overall.
It also gives them sole possession of second-place in the four-team conference, a game off of league leader Port Townsend (4-1, 7-5), a team they have split two games with this season.
Klahowya (1-1, 4-7) and Chimacum (0-4, 0-8) currently bring up the rear.
Wednesday’s game, which featured a mind-numbing 52 free throws, almost half of which were missed, started like a rout, turned into a pitched battle, then became more of a runaway in the final moments.
After falling behind 2-1 a few seconds into the game — the only time it would trail all night — Coupeville went on a 12-1 run, highlighted by six points from Hunter Smith, and looked like it would cruise.
Even if not all their shots were falling, and the refs were already starting to call a LOT of fouls on both teams, the Wolves were in control and it didn’t appear the undermanned Cowboys had many answers.
Until they did.
While Chimacum wasn’t the sharpest-shooting team, or the slickest-passing, it did one thing very well — hit the boards and give itself second, third and fourth chances.
That helped the Cowboys slowly amass a 14-4 surge of their own, tying the game at 17-17 early in the second quarter.
Coupeville seemed intent on playing like a yo-yo for much of the game, snapping off sizzling runs, then handing back buckets in chunks to their win-less foes, leaving coach Brad Sherman frequently wearing a look of mild indigestion.
An 8-0 run in a matter of about eight seconds, capped by Smith hitting a breakaway layup, then immediately punching home a three-ball off of a tipped pass, eased the angina. A bit.
But CHS couldn’t seem to put Chimacum away, taking a 14-point lead early in the third, only to then hand back more than half their advantage in the matter of a few plays.
Suddenly clinging to a 43-37 lead with under a minute to play in the third, the Wolves finally found their knockout punch, or punches.
They came courtesy Dane Lucero and Hunter Downes, hard-working rebound hounds, who converted on back-to-back put-backs to end the quarter.
Toss in a patented “Rock Block,” a soundly-rejected shot by senior big man Kyle Rockwell, and the Wolf bruisers fully earned their stripes against a rough-and-tumble Cowboy squad.
Back up by 10, Coupeville found a new gear in the fourth, ripping off 20 points, with five different players scoring, while limiting Chimacum to a single field goal.
“We came out on fire in that fourth quarter and rebounded really well,” Sherman said. “We needed to do that; it was a nice way to finish.”
While the team’s leading scorers this season, Smith and Ethan Spark, combined for 11 points in the fourth, CHS also got big contributions from their fellow battle-hardened seniors.
Defensive dynamo Cameron Toomey-Stout, a pass-first set-up man, went off for five points in the quarter, including a long three-ball, while Downes picked up assists with a pair of sweet dishes to Lucero and Spark.
Smith paced the Wolves, who scored their most points of the season, with 25.
That lifts him to 695, and he passed Virgil Roehl (674), Gavin Keohane (677) and Chris Good (688) Wednesday to claim 17th place on the Wolf boys basketball career scoring list.
Spark rattled home 17, including three treys, while Downes banked home eight (while snatching 12 rebounds) and Toomey-Stout sank a season-high seven.
Lucero (4), Joey Lippo (4) and Rockwell (2) rounded out the scoring.
Coupeville was very effective in disrupting the Cowboy offense, pilfering 20 steals. Smith led the assault with eight, while Spark made off with four.
In a game in which the refs called a foul after a Chimacum player out on the break fell down under his own power, with the nearest Wolf five feet away, the two teams spent an inordinate amount of time at the free-throw line.
The Cowboys shot a slightly better percentage (55% to 52%), but also missed more, hitting 17 of 31 compared to Coupeville’s 11-21.
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