Hunter Downes, here wrestling away a rebound in an earlier game, was a defensive demon Friday, coming up with a huge steal in the final 10 seconds of regulation. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Everything but the win.
Playing for only the second time in 16 days, the Coupeville High School boys basketball squad went to war with visiting North Mason Friday, coming within a play of upending their speed-demon 2A rivals.
But the Bulldogs, who were atrocious all night from the free throw line, were flawless in the one moment which mattered, holding on for a wild 63-61 win in overtime.
The non-conference loss drops Coupeville to 3-7, but the Wolves have an immediate chance to rebound, hosting Klahowya Saturday afternoon (3:45 varsity tip) in a key Olympic League clash.
Topple the Eagles and the Wolves will sit atop the league standings at 2-0.
Coupeville has faced a tough non-conference schedule, and, by and large, the Wolves have held up well.
Friday was no different as the Wolves bolted out to a big lead early, scrambled to pull off a miracle in the final 10 seconds of regulation, then almost pulled off a second miracle in the extra period.
Trailing by four with 25 seconds left in regulation, CHS improbably tied up the game thanks to one sure thing, and one huge surprise.
The sure thing was Hunter Smith attacking the basket, drawing a foul, then banking home a pair of free throws which softly snapped through the net.
The improbable came after the Wolves used back-to-back fouls to frustrate North Mason.
Coupeville had fouls to give, and the calls forced the Bulldogs to take the ball out of bounds both times. The second time, with eight seconds to play, the Wolves took advantage.
North Mason, rushing to beat a five-second call, threw a pass into the wrong thicket of arms, and Wolf defensive ace Hunter Downes read it perfectly.
The senior snared the ball off of the fingertips of a rival, spun and fed Smith for a breakaway layup to knot things at 53-53, sending his home fans into hysterics.
CHS then almost pulled off a true miracle, as Joey Lippo knocked the ball away on the next play, stole it and chucked up a prayer right before the final buzzer.
It wasn’t answered, however, and, for the second time this season, Coupeville went to overtime.
The extra four minutes weren’t as kind this time around as they were the first time during a win over Port Townsend, as North Mason hit back-to-back three-balls to start things off.
Suddenly down eight, with time running out, Ethan Spark did his best one-man impersonation of a scoring machine, hitting a trey and two free throws to pull Coupeville within 61-58.
Forced to foul, the Wolves sent Jha’mal Johnson to the line.
North Mason was just 7 of 18 at the charity stripe to that point, but Johnson was money, dropping in both shots to all but seal the win.
Spark nailed another long three-ball, his fifth of the game, but the Wolves couldn’t buy a foul at the end, poking at the North Mason players to no avail as the final six seconds ran off the clock.
The wild finale capped a game that went in spurts.
Coupeville opened on fire, rolling out to a 17-5 lead midway through the first quarter, with four different players knocking down buckets.
Smith and Lippo had six apiece in the opening run, with the latter netting three the easy way (a trey on the first shot of the game) and three the hard way (a bucket in the paint, followed by a free throw).
Toss in a three-ball from Spark and a short jumper from Kyle Rockwell, who was moving like a young Karl Malone, and things were humming for the Wolves.
Until they weren’t.
North Mason turned the tables from late in the first quarter until right before halftime, compiling its own 17-5 surge to knot things at 22-22.
That just meant it was Lippo time, again, as the senior, who was having the finest offensive night of his basketball career, tossed in another four, with his final layup sending CHS into the locker room up 27-23.
Coupeville’s Achilles heel has been the third quarter, and North Mason took advantage of a brief bit of Wolf sluggishness to run off nine straight points to open the quarter.
Spark finally stopped the bleeding with a silky jumper from the side five minutes into the quarter, and another three-the-hard-way from Lippo pulled the Wolves back within 37-33 headed to the fourth.
The final quarter was a donnybrook, with seven lead changes.
Downes, who would later come up with the game-defining steal and assist, had a put-back off of a rebound that was huge, while North Mason gunner Trey Fisher started hitting everything from everywhere.
Fisher, who didn’t score in the first half, finished with a game-high 22, with the majority of that coming in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Included in that were three straight eyebrow-raising shots, counting for seven points total, which he rained down immediately after a Spark three-ball gave Coupeville a 49-46 lead.
The Wolves spread much of their scoring among three players, with Spark hitting for 20, while Smith and Lippo chipped in with 18 apiece.
That was a career-high for Lippo, while Smith’s points raise his career total to 657.
He passed Jason McFadyen (654) Friday to move into 23rd on the CHS boys basketball career scoring chart.
Downes (3) and Rockwell (2) rounded out the scoring.
JV stumbles early:
Take away the first quarter, in which they dug themselves a 20-0 deficit, and the Wolf JV made a game of things.
But that opening eight minutes, where a full-court press shredded a lot of their resolve, made things hard, and CHS couldn’t get all the way back in a 58-28 loss.
The non-conference defeat drops the Wolf young guns to 1-8 on the season.
Coupeville, which didn’t get a shot off in the first three minutes of the game, finally broke through on the scoreboard on the opening shot of the second quarter.
Then promptly suffered another 13-1 run at the hands of the Bulldogs.
Pick the game up from the final minute of the second quarter through the end of regulation, and it was a 25-25 stalemate, though, with Mason Grove raining down five treys on his way to a team-high 15.
Jake Pease fought hard in the paint for six points, while Sages Downes (4), Koa Davison (2) and Jonathan Partida (1) rounded out the scoring.
