Hunter Smith knocked down a team-high 15 Friday night in an overtime loss. (John Fisken photos)
Gabe Wynn tossed in 11, including a one-of-a-kind three ball.
So much went right, that what didn’t, hurts worse.
The Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad, thin on bodies, thin on experience and still battling to find its groove, looked as good Friday night as it has at any point this season.
The Wolves played smart team ball to open things, didn’t break when visiting Chimacum made its big run, and rallied late to force overtime.
But truly awful free-throw shooting prevented Coupeville from winning in regulation, and a dagger of a three-ball in the extra period knifed its final chance, sending the Wolves tumbling to a 63-56 loss that never should have been.
The loss drops CHS to 1-4 in Olympic League play, 1-11 overall. It also, for the moment, knocks them out of a playoff spot.
The top three teams in the league go to the postseason, and right now that’s Port Townsend (3-0), two-time defending league champ Chimacum (3-1) and Klahowya (1-3).
Coupeville still largely controls its own fate, with four league games left including the third and deciding match-up with Klahowya, who the Wolves have split with.
CHS doesn’t play another league game until Jan. 20, with its next three being non-conference affairs against Sequim, Mount Vernon Christian and North Mason.
A win Friday would have been huge, both in terms of positioning in the league standings, and in the psychological boost it would have offered the Wolves.
“I wanted it for the kids,” said Coupeville coach Anthony Smith. “I’m proud of the way we went at it. It was a good team effort, from the whole team.
“We keep battling and getting better,” he added. “It was there … it was there.”
The Wolves had battled back from a 10-point deficit (a 13-0 Chimacum run to open the second quarter was the only stretch that really stung Coupeville), and reclaimed the lead late in the fourth.
Ethan Spark split two defenders for a driving layup to knot the game up at 47, then the Hunter-to-Hunter connection gave CHS mometary control.
Flying full-tilt down the floor, Hunter Smith sucked the defense in, then rose up and fired a vicious pass over the top to Hunter Downes.
The ball hit his mitts with a bang, but the battle-hardened Downes, who enjoyed his best offensive performance of the season, held on, then spun the ball over his shoulder for a game-breaking layup.
Neither team blinked in the final two minutes, with Chimacum packaging a pair of buckets in the paint around another basket from Spark to leave things at 51-51.
Both squads had a chance to take the advantage at the charity stripe in a rough-and-tumble game that featured more than its fair share of fouls, but couldn’t do it.
Downes hit one of two to push the lead to 52-51, before the Cowboys slid one freebie through the nets, then clanked the second the very next time down the floor.
There were no Stephen Curry’s in the gym Friday, as the two schools combined to make just 26 of 50 free throws.
While Chimacum (10-19) edged Coupeville (16-31) at 52.6% to 51.6%, it was the sheer number of misses, and the fact they came from everyone on the floor, that really killed the Wolves.
The final 73 seconds of action was a tense, defensive battle, with neither team able to budge the scoreboard.
Spark narrowly missed on a three-ball with four ticks on the clock, while Chimacum’s half-court chuck at the buzzer went way wide right.
Once in overtime, things broke quickly, and badly.
Two quick Cowboy buckets off of transition put Coupeville in a hole, though it did battle back.
Gabe Wynn took an offensive rebound pack up for a bucket, then Wynn and Downes each made one of two at the line to pull the Wolves within 58-56.
Needing a defensive stand, CHS instead watched its plans crumble as Chimacum knocked down a three-ball with 38 seconds to play, effectively ending the night on a sour note.
It had started so positively, with the Wolves running out to a 9-6 lead after the first eight minutes, despite not getting a single point from their top two scorers, Hunter Smith and Wynn.
Instead, it was Downes, with four, including a gorgeous trey from deeeeeeeeeeep in the left corner, leading the way.
Brian Shank added three and Steven Cope hit a soft jumper after backing his man down to close the quarter, while Coupeville’s defense held Chimacum scoreless for the game’s first four minutes.
The Cowboys got their fairly annoying, man-bun-wearing bench to its happy place by raining down the first 13 points of the second quarter, but the Wolves didn’t break.
CHS closed the half on a 7-2 tear, sparked by two buckets from Shank, to get back to within three, then snatched the lead back at 38-35 in the third.
It came off of a trey from Wynn on which the ball hit the rim, popped upwards, curled around the glass, froze in mid-air to get its picture taken, then dropped softly through the net.
Hunter Smith paced the Wolves with 15, while Wynn and Downes each knocked down 11.
Spark (9), Shank (7) and Cope (3) rounded out the scoring attack, while Joey Lippo, Ariah Bepler and Cameron Toomey-Stout brought the defensive heat.
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