Cole White, seen in a rare moment where a rival player is NOT smacking him in the face. (Jackie Saia photo)
This one hurt. Literally.
The Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team suffered its first defeat of the season Saturday, falling 52-38 to visiting Toledo in a game marred by pain, lopsided officiating, and an offensive attack which sputtered at clutch time.
The good news is the rumble was a non-conference affair, so while the Wolves fall to 2-1 after a busy first week, it doesn’t put a ding in their pursuit of a league crown.
What did have a serious ding put in it was Cole White’s face, and Chase Anderson’s back.
The senior ballhandler, who has now bled in all three of his team’s games, got belted in the mouth by a Toledo elbow and was lost with Coupeville clinging to a one-point lead in the third quarter.
No foul was called on the play — not totally surprising on a night when the refs whistled the Wolves for 25 fouls to just 14 for the visitors — and White’s exit came at a point where he was the game’s leading scorer.
Anderson, who was making his season debut after sitting out the first two games with an injury, got launched into the floor by a pack of Riverhawks earlier in the third quarter.
The springy sophomore later returned to action, but only after first applying a large bag of ice to his back, while momentarily moving like a senior citizen who just lost an intense game of shuffleboard.
Toledo was big, it was physical, and it was a solid test for the Wolves, who responded strongly much of the way.
White and Ryan Blouin knocked down three-balls in the opening minutes, packaged around a slash to the hoop by top scorer Logan Downes as CHS opened with an 8-0 run.
The Wolves eventually got the lead out as far as 17-7 right before the end of the first quarter, with Blouin slapping home a breakaway layup, but the good times hit a pause after that.
With fouls piling up, Coupeville had to sit several key starters for large chunks of the first half, and Toledo took advantage.
An 11-0 surge, starting with two free throws to exit the first, allowed the Riverhawks to take the lead for the first time at 18-17 midway through the second frame.
White and Anderson, before they got bushwhacked, hit buckets to keep things close, but the visitors went in at the half up 25-21.
Coupeville slipped further behind at 29-21, then launched an 11-3 run of its own to knot things at 32-32.
Overcoming the exits of White and Anderson, the Wolves relied on hustle defensive plays from William Davidson and the Battlin’ Bronec Brothers, Hunter and Hurlee, while Downes connected on a three-ball off of an inbounds play.
Toledo slipped a pair of free throws through the net to claim the lead heading into the fourth, but Downes immediately responded with a runner, forging the last tie at 34-34.
That was when the rim turned unforgiving for the Wolves, however, with the visitors tearing off an 18-4 run to pull away.
Two three-point plays, one on a three-ball from the top, and one on a bucket and foul, sealed the deal.
Overall, Toledo hit 13 of 23 free throws, while Coupeville was 5-10.
While fans like to complain about the disparity in fouls, Wolf coach Brad Sherman is quick to shrug that off.
“A few hard-fought games this week,” he said. “Got a couple good wins, just had a tough one tonight.
“Mostly just proud of our boy’s toughness and the way they fight for each other.”
With the next game on the schedule not until Dec. 9, when the Wolves travel to Sultan, the team will have time to fine-tune things and get healthy.
“We will get back at it this week,” Sherman said. “Clean up a few things offensively, keep building on our stuff – and that starts with me.”
Downes paced Coupeville Saturday with 13 points, scoring 11 in the second half while haunted by foul trouble, with White knocking down 11 before being maimed.
Blouin (5), Anderson (4), Hurlee Bronec (3), and Nick Guay (2) also scored, with Zane Oldenstadt, Davidson, Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, and Hunter Bronec also getting floor time.
Hurlee Bronec’s points, which came on a three-point play the hard way, were his first as a varsity player.
He is the 414th Wolf boy we’ve been able to document scoring in the program’s 107-year history.
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