Cole White popped for a career-high 23 points Monday to spark Coupeville to a playoff win on the road. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
They possess many hands, and all of them are going to slap you upside the head.
The Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball players are dead set on getting back to the promised land, and they’re carving a trail of success, one well-timed knockout punch at a time.
Monday night the spotlight shone brightly on often unsung heroes like Cole White, Nick Guay, and Hurlee Bronec, as they sparked the Wolves to a 64-50 win in their District 1/2 playoff opener at Auburn Adventist Academy.
Playing on a funky court, with a wobbly rim on one end and a staircase to nowhere on the other, in a joint that resembles an old-school airport hangar, Coupeville overcame foul trouble and a slow start and now sits a win away from returning to the state tourney.
Coupeville, 16-5 after the win, hosts La Conner (15-6) Wednesday night at 7:00 PM in the Bi-District title game.
It’ll be the third meeting this season for the Northwest 2B/1B League co-champs, with the Braves taking game one 69-68, before the Wolves rebounded to claim the rematch 65-54.
The victor in meeting #3 earns a ticket to state, as Coupeville tries to get to the big dance for the second time in the last three years.
Auburn Adventist (17-4) and Northwest Christian of Lacey (6-11), which fell 74-29 to La Conner Monday, play at 5:15 Wednesday at CHS in a loser-out game.
The survivor of that rumble squares off Saturday with the title game loser for the second berth to state being offered to District 1/2 teams.
Monday’s tilt in Auburn began with rain slashing down outside, and the host Falcons banging away from long-range.
Back-to-back three-balls early helped the home team jump out to a 14-6 lead, and then Coupeville lost sophomore sparkplug Chase Anderson, who picked up three fouls in about four minutes.
Apparently, the hometown refs had shiny new whistles and wanted to try them out.
Four different Wolves eventually ended up with four fouls apiece, but none fouled out, and CHS made up for the foul disparity by winning the free-throw shooting contest.
With Anderson handcuffed to the bench, Coupeville coach Brad Sherman shuffled his lineup, and everything, and everybody, immediately clicked.
The Wolves closed the quarter on a 14-6 rampage, with four different players knocking down buckets.
Hurlee Bronec gets dynamic.
Guay and Logan Downes rippled the net with their own back-to-back treys, while White and Hurlee Bronec slapped home layups off of crisp passes from the ever-alert Downes.
Auburn hit a three-ball right before the buzzer to knot things up at 18-18 heading into the first break, before scoring off of a rebound to open the second frame.
That would be the last truly happy moment for the Falcons, however, as Coupeville immediately reclaimed the lead and never let it go the rest of the night.
A 14-0 surge, with White twice throwing down three-point plays the hard way, deflated Auburn, and it didn’t get easier from there for the hosts.
Downes also converted a three-point play on a slash to the bucket plus a free throw, as the Wolves caressed the net, converting all nine of their charity shots in the quarter.
Up 38-28 at the half, Coupeville let Auburn get a little taste of comeback fever in the third frame, but just a little.
The Falcons cut the deficit down to five thanks to their success from behind the arc, but then the Wolves handed the ball to Downes and let him go blow things up.
In four contests against Auburn Adventist over the past two seasons, the Wolf senior has rattled the rims for 40, 24, 30, and 24 points, and he seems to take great delight in ramming home the fatal dagger.
Downes closed the third by tossing in eight points during a 10-2 run, while flinging a note-perfect lob to White, who was tiptoeing through the paint, for the other score, and CHS was on its way.
The lead was 53-40 heading into the fourth quarter, and the Wolves shoved it all the way out to 18 late in the game.
Another 9-0 surge, this one fueled by seven points from the “can’t miss, won’t miss” White, pushed the game dangerously close to blowout country, before Auburn sliced a few points off the lead in the waning moments.
Nick Guay doesn’t fear your defense, fool.
Coupeville’s final bucket, coming on a swooping layup from Guay, was a milestone moment, as the lanky senior became the fourth active Wolf to crack the career 200-point club.
CHS got a solid one-two punch at the top of the scorebook, with Downes dropping in 24 and White banking in a career-best 23.
That pushes Downes to 476 points for the season, the third-best single-season effort put up by a Wolf boy across 107 campaigns.
The only guys ahead of him?
Jeff Stone, who scorched the nets for 644 in 1969-1970, and Downes himself, as he threw down 554 last year as a junior.
With his career night White continues to push for his own milestone moments.
He’s sitting with 389 points, good for #66 all-time on the CHS career scoring chart, and he and dad Greg (#33 at 604) are seven points shy of combining for a sweet 1,000.
Guay added nine Monday to get to 200, while the Battlin’ Bronec Brothers combined for six, with Hurlee sinking four and Hunter notching two points while terrorizing folks on defense.
Ryan Blouin, coming off his own career night a game ago, added a bucket this time while zipping passes left and right, and Wolf bangers William Davidson and Zane Oldenstadt provided lock-down defense in the paint.
And Chase Anderson?
Maybe next time the refs will stop calling ticky-tacky fouls, let him stay on the floor, and marvel at his hops when his butt isn’t super-glued to a chair.
One can only hope.
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