Wolf seniors (l to r) Dominic Coffman, Alex Murdy, Jermiah Copeland, and Jonathan Valenzuela were honored Tuesday night. (Morgan White photo)
Level one achievement, unlocked.
Playing aggressive, often-inspired team defense Tuesday, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball squad polished off visiting La Conner 60-47.
That keeps the Wolves undefeated against fellow 2B schools and lifts them to 13-6 overall heading into Friday’s regular-season finale at Friday Harbor.
Winners of 11 of its last 13 games, Coupeville also clinches the #1 playoff seed from District 1 with the win over the Braves.
That guarantees the Wolves will play all their games in the bi-district tourney on their home floor, as they seek to punch a ticket to state in back-to-back seasons for only the second time in program history.
Coupeville hosts Northwest Christian (Lacey), the #2 seed from District 2, Feb. 14, while D-1 #2 La Conner hits the road the same night to face D-2 #1 Auburn Adventist Academy.
The winners play at CHS Feb. 16 for the bi-district title and a state berth.
The losers of the opening games wage a loser-out affair, also at CHS Feb. 16, with the winner of that rumble advancing to a game Feb. 18 against the title game loser for District 1/2’s second state tourney ticket.
Which is a long way to getting around to the fact Coupeville controls its own destiny from here on out, with home cookin’ and rabid Wolf Nation fans within easy reach.
Advance to state, as CHS did last season, breaking a 34-year dry spell, and the Wolves will match the run when both the 1974-1975 and 1975-1976 teams made it to the big dance.
La Conner, as expected, put up a hard fight Tuesday night, but couldn’t quite recreate the same magic it showed in a one-point loss to the Wolves earlier this season.
The first quarter was a donnybrook, however, with Coupeville overcoming a six-point deficit to knot things up at 17-17 thanks to back-to-back three-balls from Logan Downes and Cole White.
CHS senior Jonathan Valenzuela, who gutted the Braves with a buzzer-beating bomb last time, banked in another trey this time out, while Alex Murdy and Dominic Coffman keyed a hyped-up Wolf defense.
Freshman Chase Anderson soon joined the shut-down brigade, coming on to harass, irritate, and thoroughly chafe any La Conner gunner who touched the ball.
Scrappy beyond his years, and also capable of tossing down a bank shot under duress on offense, “The Magic Man” was the secret ingredient in Wolf coach Brad Sherman’s defensive gumbo, and he drove several Braves batty.
Which is awesome.
The game remained a war of attrition through much of the second quarter, with four ties and several lead changes, before Coupeville made its move.
Coffman, hanging high in the air, yanked a loose ball away and put it back up and in to stake the Wolves to a 28-26 lead and the home team would never trail again after that.
Downes drilled the bottom out of the net on a three-ball right before halftime to make it 32-27, then slipped a free throw through the net with less than a second left in the third to keep CHS up 44-38.
In between, Coupeville got gut-check baskets from White and Murdy, as the Wolves responded in style each time La Conner tried to pull even.
Still, no one was feeling safe as the fourth quarter began, until CHS dropped a couple of haymakers.
Valenzuela banked in a jumper to open the final frame, cracking the 100-point club for his varsity career, but it was a 10-2 run midway through the quarter which allowed Brad Sherman to finally exhale.
Six of the points in that tear came off of the fingers of White, channeling the spirit of dad Greg as he went hard to the hoop for repeat buckets.
Valenzuela and Downes set up their teammate with precision passes, while Anderson, still magnificently chafing the Braves, drew a charging foul which knocked the last bit of wind out of La Conner’s sails.
Logan Downes makes it rain. (Bailey Thule photo)
Coupeville spread its scoring out between six shooters, with Downes popping for a game-high 27 points and White rippling the nets for 15.
Valenzuela (7), Murdy (5), Anderson (4), and Coffman (2) also wrote their names in the scorebook, with Nick Guay and Jermiah Copeland earning floor time.
While the win, the chance to nab a top playoff seed, and the defensive effort were the big stories, two Wolves also made some personal history.
Valenzuela finished the night with 103 career points, becoming the fifth active Wolf boy to crack triple-digits, while Downes continues to throw down numbers rarely seen in the 106-year history of Coupeville basketball.
The junior gunner heads into the regular-season finale with 457 points this season, and 681 for his career.
Only Jeff Stone (644 in 1969-1970) and Jeff Rhubottom (459 in 1977-1978) have scored more in a single season.
Career-wise, Downes performance Tuesday pushes him past Wolf legends Jason McFadyen (654), Wade Ellsworth (659), Pat Bennett (659), Foster Faris (668), Virgil Roehl (674), and Gavin Keohane (677), and places him #22 all-time for a program launched in 1917.
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