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Posts Tagged ‘CHS Wolves’

Tough night, lots of fight

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Andrew Aparicio netted a bucket off of a rebound Wednesday, as Coupeville’s C-Team clashed with 4A Mount Vernon. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They knew they were in for a tough fight.

When the Coupeville High School C-Team boys basketball squad took the floor Wednesday night, they were missing two key players, and their foe was a high-flying team from a 4A school.

So, the fact the Wolves fell 61-12 to visiting Mount Vernon wasn’t the biggest surprise of the new year, is what we’re saying.

But, despite playing without leading scorer Ty Hamilton and enforcer Ben Smith, both battling illnesses, Coupeville didn’t go down easily.

“They definitely didn’t give up,” said CHS coach Patrick Upchurch. “They put up a good battle, a good fight, against a strong team.”

Mount Vernon, which is 6-1 on the season, is listed as the school’s “freshman” team, though their roster shows three juniors, three sophomores, and just two 9th graders.

The Bulldogs C-Team, which stayed home on the mainland, is made up of all freshmen, so, you had me confused from the get-go.

Which is not that hard to do.

Regardless of what grade level they sit in, Mount Vernon had a flashy, nimble point guard in junior Cads Pineda, a strong three-ball shooter in sophomore Trent Borgognoni, and a 6-foot-5 bruiser in freshman Donovan McEwan.

It’s easy to see why the Bulldogs boast a stellar record, as they zip the ball around, toss daggers from the corners, and get thousands of buckets off of crisp passes to guys cutting under the basket.

Coupeville played a far rougher form of the game, though their players, a good chunk of whom are new to the game, showed flashes of promise.

Freshman Dominic Coffman netted the first bucket of the night for the Wolves, driving around his defender and banging home a running layup.

But, even then, the score sat at 13-2 in favor of the visitors, a sign of how tough this matchup would be for CHS.

Fellow frosh Alex Murdy, a JV player popping down to help fill out the illness-depleted roster, followed Coffman’s bucket with a swooping layup of his own.

Then, Mount Vernon scored 32 of the next 34 points, stretching the lead all the way out to 45-6 two minutes into the third quarter.

Coffman prevented the refs from instituting a running clock, for a few moments at least, as he slashed to the hoop for a bucket to keep the lead below the 40-point cutoff.

The Bulldogs, however, rained down a couple more three-balls, part of the seven they hit on the night, and that triggered the running clock and one of the stupidest rules in modern high school basketball.

Once the lead hits 40, refs now order clock operators to stop adding points to the scoreboard, regardless of which team scores them.

The scorebook keeper still tallies field goals and free throws, but fans in the stands are left high and dry, lest their tender sensibilities be offended by actually knowing the real score.

It’s stupid, maybe second only to the rule which prevents middle school basketball teams from playing overtime periods to break ties.

Maybe…

Back in the real world, where all the buckets were fully recorded, Coffman paced the Wolves with six points, while Murdy, Andrew Aparicio, and Brayden Coatney tossed in a bucket apiece to round out the scoring.

Coen Killian, Nick Armstrong, Alex Wasik, Chris Cernick, Caleb Sonntag, Jaden Goodrich, and Josh Upchurch also saw floor time for CHS, with Cernick playing strongly on the defensive end of the floor.

The Wolf C-Team returns to action next week with three games.

They host Cedar Park Christian Tuesday, January 14, host Sultan Jan. 15 in a rescheduled game, then travel to South Whidbey Jan. 17.

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CHS boys romp in league opener

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Sean Toomey-Stout pumped in 10 points Tuesday as Coupeville’s varsity rolled to a big win at Granite Falls. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Rain the three-balls and bang down low.

Proving adept from both long range and in the pits Tuesday, the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball team returned from a 16-day break in strong fashion.

Led by three guys who reached double digits in scoring, the Wolves romped to a 60-42 win at Granite Falls, and sit just a half-game out of first place in the North Sound Conference.

Coupeville, 1-0 in league play, 4-5 overall, sits right behind King’s (2-0, 6-7), which blasted South Whidbey 78-45 Tuesday.

Cedar Park Christian (2-1, 6-5), South Whidbey (1-1, 9-3), Granite Falls (1-2, 3-7), and Sultan (0-3, 1-9) round out the six-team league, with the cellar-dwelling Turks travelling Friday to Coupeville.

The Wolves showed little rust coming out of their long winter break, bolting out to a 22-9 lead after one quarter of play.

Five different CHS players dropped in points in the opening frame, with Hawthorne Wolfe (9) and Mason Grove (6) leading the way.

While the two teams played to 18-18 and 11-11 ties across the next two quarters, Coupeville never gave the lead back, and closed the game with a 9-4 mini-run in the fourth.

The win sent CHS coach Brad Sherman back to the bus with a spring in his step.

“I thought our guys stepped up and did their jobs tonight on both sides of the ball,” he said. “Defensively, a really strong team effort, and played very tough in the paint against a physical basketball team.”

Wolfe finished with a game-high 17 points, while Grove rattled the rims for 14 — both Coupeville gunners netted four three-balls apiece — and Sean Toomey-Stout knocked down 10.

Gavin Knoblich (9), Jacobi Pilgrim (8), and Xavier Murdy (2) also scored, with Murdy making his season debut after battling through an injury. Jered Brown and Ulrik Wells rounded out the active roster.

With his 17 points Tuesday, Wolfe reached a personal milestone, soaring past 300 career points.

The CHS sophomore sits with 302 and counting, and he passes Matt Frost (290), Brian Fakkema (290), Risen Johnson (291), John Beasley (293), Noel Criscuola (298), Blake Day (299), and Noah Roehl (301) to rise from #98 to #91 on the Coupeville boys hoops all-time scoring chart.

Grove became the second Wolf to top 100 points this season, having torched the nets for 103 through the trip to Granite.

The CHS senior has 263 points for his career, putting him #111 all-time for a program which is playing its 103rd season.

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Plenty of fight, but no win

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Hannah Davidson was a defensive dynamo Tuesday as Coupeville scrapped with Cedar Park Christian. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

“Put this one on me. Put it on the coach and not the girls.”

A lot of things conspired to trip up the Coupeville High School varsity girls basketball team Tuesday night, as it fell 51-35 to visiting Cedar Park Christian.

Battling for sole possession of first place in the North Sound Conference, the Wolves looked at times, especially in the first half, like a team which was a bit rusty coming off a 16-day break.

At other times, such as when the Wolves played the Eagles to a tie in the second half, Coupeville looked very good.

Even with the loss, the Wolves still boast a 6-3 record, and are 1-1 in league play, with a long way to go.

Cedar Park (3-0, 9-4) may have the early edge, but the Eagles (and Wolves) have yet to face King’s, and will meet again Jan. 24 in Bothell.

For first-year CHS coach Scott Fox, the night had genuine moments of success.

“The second-half effort was much better,” he said. “We were coming off a long break and they jumped on us early, but we fought hard.

“I liked our effort in getting to the basket, and that we didn’t back down,” Fox added. “We need to eliminate some mental mistakes, but they’re things we can work on.”

Coupeville came in knowing it wanted to do its best to slow down defending league MVP Irena Korolenko.

Based on film study, where her support crew clanked its fair share of shots, Fox felt confident in essentially daring the other Eagles to beat Coupeville.

You play the odds, and sometimes the odds come back to bite you, as Cedar Park dropped four treys during a 19-9 first quarter, with Korolenko accounting for only one of those three-balls.

“That’s on me … I must have watched the wrong film,” Fox said with a small chuckle.

Korolenko opened the game with a three-ball from the top of the arc, netted another trey early in the second quarter, then coasted home with six free throws as she finished with a fairly-quiet 12 points.

But her presence was invaluable for the Eagles, whether it was her ability to quickly bring the ball up-court, preventing Coupeville from trapping, her quick, efficient passing, or her rock-solid defense.

Sparked by their quietly-lethal team leader, the other Cedar Park players all filled their assigned roles, making it hard for the Wolves to find too many cracks in their collective games.

Coupeville hung tough, trailing just 19-11 after Avalon Renninger slashed inside for a bucket to open the second quarter.

But then came the one time the Wolves truly sputtered all night, with the Eagles reeling off 11 straight points to go up by double-digits.

After that, CHS made inroads, fought with intensity, and scrapped to the end, but never got the lead back down under 13 at any point.

Chelsea Prescott, showing no fear, went hard at the heart of the Eagle defense again and again, picking up eight of her team-high 12 points at the free-throw line.

Unfortunately, she was one of the few Wolves to find a rhythm at the charity stripe, as Coupeville struggled to a 13-31 performance on freebies.

CHS closed the game on a 9-5 surge, started by freshman Maddie Georges drilling a jumper to end the third, and capped by senior Hannah Davidson netting a soft runner a tick before the game’s final buzzer.

Prescott’s 12-point performance, her best showing of the season, carried her past a personal milestone, as well.

With a third-quarter free throw, the Wolf junior became the 57th player in Coupeville girls basketball history, which stretches from 1974-2020, to reach 200 career points.

Now sitting with 204 and counting, Prescott passed former greats Kim Warder (193), Julia Myers (202), and Pam Jampsa (202) Tuesday, and is #55 all-time.

Senior Scout Smith also achieved a bit of Wolf hoops history, notching her 224th point to slide past Annette Jameson and become the 50th best scorer in program history.

Smith tallied three points Tuesday, while Renninger and Davidson banked in six apiece.

Izzy Wells (3), Georges (3), and Tia Wurzrainer (2) also scored, with Anya Leavell, Carolyn Lhamon, Mollie Bailey, Audrianna Shaw, and Kylie Van Velkinburgh seeing floor time.

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Wolves thrash, mash Eagles

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 7, 2020| 1 Comment »

Heidi Meyers and the Coupeville JV girls are 5-2 after thumping Cedar Park Christian Tuesday night. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

This was a good ol’ beat-down.

Introduce balanced scoring. Add in a ball-hawking, lock-down defense. Then let the bodies hit the floor.

Controlling the game from opening tip to final bucket Tuesday, the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball team drilled visiting Cedar Park Christian.

At 39-23, with the visitors trimming five points off the deficit in the final moments, the score might not immediately jump out to you as a rout.

But it most assuredly was.

Now 2-0 in North Sound Conference play, 5-2 overall, the JV girls were methodical and ruthless against their private school rivals.

The Wolves jumped on the board quickly, with Alita Blouin and Ella Colwell running a note-perfect give-and-go in which The Assassin slashed through the defense like a living machete carving her way through the jungle underbrush.

Very next play, and almost a repeat, with Colwell delivering a perfectly-placed pass, and Blouin crashing to the hoop for another bucket.

The only difference in the plays, on round two, Blouin knocked her defender onto the floor as she slashed by, but did it so confidently the ref just nodded, as if to silently say, “I see you. I fear you. I got nothin’ to say on the matter.”

Playing with confidence, the Wolves jumped all over CPC on defense in the early going, turning a game-opening 8-0 run into an 18-6 lead by the half.

The Eagles got few shots off in the first half, with Morgan Stevens ripping balls loose, Colwell dominating in the paint, and the trio of Blouin, Ryanne Knoblich, and Gwen Gustafson harassing rival ballhandlers into frequent turnovers.

Cedar Park finally got on the scoreboard, but it took the visitors six minutes plus to do so.

And, as soon as the Eagles found a brief spark of life, the Wolves savaged all their hopes and dreams.

Coupeville kicked off a 10-2 run in the second quarter with a play in which three different Wolves meshed their individual talents for the good of the team.

Colwell yanked down a rebound, pivoted and hit Blouin, who promptly took a step and launched a long pass which carried over the heads of the scrambling defenders and dropped onto Gustafson’s finger tips.

Weaving through two final Eagles, Gustafson slapped home the layup, then later came back around to pull off almost the same play, but this time off of a Knoblich half-court heave.

Not every Wolf scored, but every one on the floor contributed, whether it was Claire Mayne and Heidi Meyers scrambling on defense, or Natalie Castano and Jessenia Camarena getting physical with the over-matched Eagles.

Castano delivered a hearty hip check which planted a CPC player into the third row of the bleachers, while Camarena rose up above the masses to soundly reject an Eagle shot and bring a smile to coach Megan Smith’s face.

CHS put the game on ice in the third quarter, closing the frame with an 11-2 surge in which Knoblich and Colwell combined for nine points.

Both Wolves picked up their buckets by going hard to the hoop and daring Cedar Park to stop them.

Spoiler alert: the Eagles didn’t have a prayer of doing so.

Knoblich’s best score came on a ferocious drive up the middle of the lane, where she banged home the bucket while absorbing multiple blows which awarded her an ensuing free throw, as well.

Colwell stood tall all game, closing the third and fourth quarters with baskets on which she simply overpowered shorter players down low, abusing them to the delight of her vocal fan club.

The Wolf sophomore center finished with a game-high 10 points, while Gustafson (9), Knoblich (8), Blouin (7), Camarena (3), and Stevens (2) all joined in on the offensive explosion.

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Furious finale fuels JV win

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Alex Murdy was one of seven Wolf boys to score during a come-from-behind JV win Tuesday at Granite Falls. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Down, but never out.

After trailing for most of three quarters Tuesday night at Granite Falls, the Coupeville High School JV boys basketball team landed a haymaker in the game’s final eight minutes.

With Daniel Olson going wild in the final frame, pouring in 13 of his game-high 26 points, the Wolves roared from behind to turn a three-point deficit into a 14-point win.

Closing on a torrid 23-6 run, CHS exited with a 56-42 win in its North Sound Conference opener.

Now 5-3 overall, the Wolves kicked off the 2020 portion of the 2019-2020 season in style.

Trailing 13-10 at the end of the first quarter, Coupeville sliced the deficit down to 20-18 by the half, but still trailed 36-33 headed into the final quarter.

That was when Wolf coach Chris Smith let his gunners go wild, with Olson and Sage Downes rattling the rim from every angle.

Olson killed the Tigers in multiple ways in the fourth, slipping a three-ball through the net, swishing a pair of free throws, then tacking on four old-fashioned, and very-effective, two-point buckets.

Downes tickled the twines for three buckets in the final frame, as well, with Cody Roberts and Grady Rickner also scoring during the sizzlin’ finale.

Olson collected 22 of his 26 points in the second half, while Xavier Murdy, back on the floor for the first time this season after battling back from an injury, tossed in all eight of his in the second quarter.

X-Man’s younger brother, Alex Murdy, joined Downes in banging home six points apiece, with Grady Rickner (5), Roberts (4), and TJ Rickner (1) also getting into the scorebook.

Alex Jimenez, Logan Martin, and Chris Cernick also saw floor time for the Wolves, who return to action Friday when they play host to Sultan.

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