Ben Smith scored seven points and delivered a pair of knee-shaking blocks on his birthday. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
A storm battered Coupeville Thursday night.
Or at least the Storm did, as in the freshman boys basketball team from 3A Squalicum, which bopped the Coupeville C-Team 50-20.
But while the Wolves, playing their season opener, fell to their big-school foes, they played with heart and passion.
Even trailing big late, Coupeville’s players and fans, especially the Wolf varsity guys in the stands, exploded when Ben Smith dropped the hammer o’ death on a runaway Squalicum player.
Taking the court on his 17th birthday, Smith wiped the boards clean and delivered a pair of ferocious blocked shots.
The bigger of the pair came late in the fourth quarter, as he scrambled back to stem the incoming tide.
Squalicum had a big advantage in numbers, was out on the break, and looking to poster-ize the Wolves.
The Storm players, while talented, got a little fast and crazy near the end, trying to pull off NBA-worthy plays, and one would-be superstar paid the price as he roared in for his closeup.
Instead of throwing down the running layup, Squalicum’s shooter had the ball soundly rejected, as Smith rose up to the heavens above and spiked the ball like Wolf legend Maya Toomey-Stout delivering a kill on the volleyball court.
The shot went up, the shot came down three times as fast, bouncing off the Storm player’s body with a bang as it did, and the crowd in the CMS gym went bonkers.
It was an emphatic rejection, a pure hustle play, and one fans, players, and even rival coaches and refs could appreciate.
The block was also Exhibit A in the Wolves display of grit and fight, with Coupeville holding its own in the second and fourth quarter.
Take just those two frames and the game would have been a nail-biter, with Squalicum clinging to a 14-13 lead.
But we also have to add in the first quarter — a fast-paced 21-3 surge for the Storm — and the third, when the visitors rolled out to a 15-4 advantage.
Coupeville’s C-Team roster is mostly young and fairly inexperienced, and the Wolves played like it.
At times, such as when they closed the first half on a 7-2 run, then opened the third quarter with a 4-2 mini-surge, everything was clicking.
Other times not so much, as when they gave up runs of 17-0 and 16-0 at different points of the game.
Still, the positives outnumbered the negatives, and new head coach Patrick Upchurch, making his debut in the first seat, came away pleased with his team’s hustle and desire.
One player who drew a special bit of praise from the coach was freshman Ty Hamilton, who shared the ball-handling duties with fellow frosh Dominic Coffman.
“Ty had great effort, driving to the basket, and taking control of things for us,” Upchurch said. “Very good start for him and the rest of the guys.”
Coupeville’s first bucket of the C-Team season came courtesy Coen Killian, who came flying through the paint and dropped in a runner to knot the game up at 2-2.
The Wolf offense couldn’t buy a bucket after that for a very long time, however, but not for lack of trying.
Coupeville shots rolled around, dipped and darted, and found creative ways to pop back out of the net as Squalicum used a 26-1 run to assure themselves of the victory.
Hamilton finally stopped the carnage, when he shot up the gut and banked home a shot with about two minutes left in the second quarter.
After that, it was Coffman’s turn to get deadly, as he closed the first half with back-to-back buckets.
“The Dominator” swished a sweet jumper, set up by Smith leaping high to intercept a pass and kick off a fast break, then calmly netted a three-ball with a hand in his face.
Smith gave his fans a birthday present with his strong play on both ends of the floor in the second half, throwing down six points with a pair of free throws, a breakaway layup, and a jumper from the side.
And we have to give Squalicum credit for one of the best buckets we’ll probably see all season, at any level.
Running full tilt towards his bench, a lanky Storm player went airborne, snagged the runaway ball, and flung it backwards over his head.
It was a desperate bid just to keep the play alive, and yet it worked 10,000 times better than expected.
The heave left the Squalicum player’s fingertips right before he crashed out of bounds, and, defying the odds and possibly a few rules of science, cut a path through the outstretched arms of at least three Wolf defenders.
Landing right in the waiting hands of the most surprised Storm player on the floor, who immediately flipped the ball up for a layup, it turned out to be a miracle assist worthy of an in-his-prime John Stockton.
If he had suddenly gotten superpowers.
Coupeville, which will get right back at it Friday when the Wolf C-Team plays Concrete’s JV in a home game, was led Thursday by Smith and Coffman, who tallied seven points apiece.
Hamilton banked in four, Killian netted a bucket, and the Wolves got strong support work from Brayden Coatney, Josh Upchurch, Nick Armstrong, Simon Shelley, and Jaden Goodrich.
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