Wolf hoops stars Luke Blas (left) and Burke Winger both played strongly Thursday afternoon. (Stephanie Blas photo)
The losses sting, but the lessons learned will likely benefit their future growth.
Thursday was a sometimes-painful experience for the Coupeville Middle School boys’ basketball players, with three losses to visiting King’s, including a gut punch at the end of a four-hour affair.
But while the Wolves couldn’t hold off their private school rivals, they did display a lot of growth and showcased some areas where they truly excel.
With four straight games on the road after this — CMS doesn’t play in Cow Town again until December 14 — the goal will be to absorb those hard-earned lessons and come out swinging the next time they hit the floor.
How Thursday played out:
Level 3:
The final score is misleading.
While Coupeville lost 25-12, the Wolves went into the halftime break knotted up at 8-8, only to leave their jump shots in the locker room, allowing the Knights to pull away down the stretch.
CMS actually led for much of the first half, jumping out to an early lead on a jumper from Cruz Fasolo and a buzzer beater from Jon Driscoll.
Back-to-back second quarter buckets from Fasolo and Holden O’Neil, with both sharpshooters using the glass to bank in the ball, staked Coupeville to its last advantage at 8-6 with about a minute to go in the opening half.
Sparked by Jonah Dunham, who was a whirlwind on the boards, the Wolves clamped down on defense and looked to be in a good place.
Unfortunately, the basket went cold for the hometown heroes after that.
King’s got a last-second basket to even things right before the break, then slowly, steadily pulled away in the second half.
A jumper from Dunham pulled Coupeville within 12-10, but the Knights closed the game on a 13-2 surge, evening Coupeville’s record at 1-1 on the season.
Fasolo (4), Driscoll (4), O’Neil (2), and Dunham (2) accounted for the scoring, with Lincoln Folkestad, Silas Rudat, Rockford Reyes, Evan Sierra, Antonio Echeverria Bryant, John Davis, Leonidas Mitchell, Ezra Tercero, Gabe Reed, and Hayden Cooper also seeing floor time.
Level 2:
A nailbiter through three quarters, before a cold shooting touch in the fourth quarter doomed Coupeville in a 29-20 loss.
The Wolves, now 1-1 on the season, came out red hot and rockin’, with a deadly eye at the free throw stripe helping them build an early lead.
Luke Blas and Burke Winger both drilled the bottom out of the net from the charity line in the first quarter, combining to net all six of their freebies as CMS surged ahead 8-3 by the first break.
While things got a bit more tense in the next two frames, the Wolves seemed to have an answer for every move King’s made, playing to an 11-11 tie at halftime and trailing just 17-16 through three quarters.
Mica McCloskey and Adrian Mitchell provided a spark with their hustle and quick hands, while Blas was stoppin’ and poppin’ to the delight of his fervent fan club.
A pull-up jumper from the lanky Wolf was big, while a three-ball buried from the right side was a sweet dagger.
But the fourth quarter offered a major bump in the road for Coupeville, as shots which had been going down started popping back out and King’s pushed a one-point lead out to a nine-point advantage.
Blas came back around to nail a second trey from long distance as the final seconds ticked away, but the clock was moving too fast for a full comeback.
Winger (4), Logan Flowers (3), and Liam Stoner (1) provided support for Blas, who rained down a team-high 12 points, with McCloskey, Dreyke Mendiola, Mitchell, Hayden Maynes, and LJ Schultz rounding out the roster.
Level 1:
The heartbreaker.
Coupeville’s top squad led by 10 points with three minutes to play, then went ice cold, allowing King’s to close on an 11-0 tear for a 33-32 victory.
Watch the film from just the first 25 minutes, and there is much to appreciate, as the Wolves, now 1-1, dominated on the boards, hit big shot after big shot, and proved unflappable under pressure.
Nico Strong lived up to his last name in the early going, going coast-to-coast for a breakaway bucket, while also rejecting a shot while scrambling back on defense.
Add in a sweet jumper from the side from Brady Sherman, while Gracen Joiner shut down the paint like a young Dikembe Mutombo, and CMS was primed for something special.
King’s was tough and held a 13-9 lead early in the second quarter, but then the Wolves found a perfect groove, rattling off 12 straight points to bolt out to a 21-13 lead.
Half of those points came courtesy Sherman, who rained down a pair of three-balls just like his dad, Brad, did so many times back in the day.
Upholding family honor from behind the arc, the next gen star netted one trey from the right side, then another from the left side, as the CMS student section chanted “Brady! Brady!! Brady!!!” loud enough to wake up the cows out on the prairie.
Not content to sit with just two bombs, Sherman opened the third quarter with a third three-ball, before back-to-back buckets from Joiner staked the Wolves to their biggest lead of the game at 28-17.
The first of those Joiner baskets was set up by a rebound-and-dish move from Strong, while Sherman added a block to derail a breakaway, and Brayden Grinstead slid face-first across the grimy gym floor to save a runaway ball.
Every rebound was contested, every loose ball fought for, every push answered with a resounding thump, whether it was Joiner repeatedly crashing through the defense like a runaway freight train — while successfully drawing the foul — or Braxten Ratcliff body-slamming fools while wrestling possession away from Knight ballhandlers.
King’s, though, found its shooting touch in the fourth quarter, almost doubling its point total by winning the final frame 16-4.
Another coast-to-coast romp from Strong made it 30-20, while Joiner converted a bucket off of an offensive rebound to push CMS ahead 32-22.
Then the bottom fell out.
Give King’s credit for playing wild-eyed defense across the final 180 seconds, and for converting in crunch time, including slapping home the go-ahead layup with just 18.9 seconds to play.
You live, you learn, you move on.
Sherman and Joiner paced the Wolves with 11 points apiece, Xander Flowers (5), Strong (4), and Colton Ashby (1) chipped in, and Grinstead, Tymber Hubble, Abel O’Neil, and Ratcliff all brought the defensive heat.
