A rough and tumble season finale at Forks included CMS spark-plug guard Kiara Contreras suffering an ankle injury. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
As season finales go, this one busted out all the fireworks.
After traveling all day Thursday, and then some, to get to Forks, the Coupeville Middle School basketball squads walked head-on into a wild afternoon on the court.
By the time the Wolves exited and headed back to the bus for their final trip home this season, they had two wins in as many games, though one came in an extremely odd manner.
The Wolf 7th graders romped to a 37-24 win, while the CMS 8th graders officially were credited with a forfeit win after the Forks coach pulled his players and took his ball home while trailing by five with 14 ticks left on the clock.
Seriously.
But first, the game that finished.
7th grade:
Carolyn Lhamon has steadily grown as a force in the paint for the Wolves, and she capped her first middle school season by throwing down a career-high 24 points.
While Lhamon by herself would have been enough to match Forks, she wasn’t alone.
Not by a long shot.
Maddie Georges tossed in seven in support, Nezi Keiper and Gwen Gustafson each added a bucket and Alita Blouin knocked down a pair of free throws to round out the attack.
With the win, the CMS 7th graders finished the season at 8-2 for first-year head coach Alex Evans.
The Wolves fell only to Sequim, a large middle school which funnels players to a 2A high school, and both of those games came down to the wire. One was decided late in the fourth, the other in overtime.
8th grade:
Where to begin?
The game was rough-and-tumble, to be charitable, with Coupeville shooting 35 free throws and losing spark-plug guard Kiara Contreras to a leg injury after she was sent intentionally flying by a Forks rival.
Up by one with 50 seconds to go, the home-town Spartans melted down mentally, throwing away the game and their cool.
Wolf scoring ace Anya Leavell struck twice, stealing a ball and turning it into a go-ahead layup, then pilfering yet another pass only to be tackled to the floor.
Unable to continue, she had to be replaced at the free throw line, with Coupeville coach Dustin Van Velkinburgh calling on Abby Mulholland to do the honors.
“Enter the momentum-swinging hero! After playing less than a minute, Abby steps to the free throw line and sinks them both,” said a proud coach.
After that, things went all to heck and beyond, with a steal on an inbound pass, a turnover, a missed Forks shot, a scramble for a loose ball and a Forks coach coming unglued.
Whistled for a technical, he continued to rant while Izzy Wells iced the game with a pair of charity shots.
And then the Forks coach took his ball and went home, refusing to play out the final 13.8 seconds of the season, forfeiting the game and any chance to close with class.
In the midst of a game where a Forks player cursed right at a ref’s face and Contreras was injured on a play that seemed to spring out of a time machine from the era when the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boys” used to throttle Michael Jordan, there was a saving grace.
It came in the way Coupeville’s players handled a potentially explosive situation on a foreign floor.
“There were a lot of times where we could have given into the fight but we didn’t,” Van Velkinburgh said. “We stayed the course, stayed together and got large contributions down the stretch to pull a wrestling match out to be a basketball game win.
“We end our season and I couldn’t be more proud of this group of young ladies.”
His squad finished 6-4, with their losses coming to Stevens and Sequim, two schools several times larger than Coupeville.
The victories built his team’s confidence, and the losses taught them what they need to do to improve.
As they prepare to move up to high school ball, Van Velkinburgh, who has guided these players through several years of SWISH basketball prior to this season, has seen the Wolves grow, develop and bond as a team, on and off the floor.
“I’m very excited for their future,” he said. “My hope is they continue to work hard and that they stay together.
“Amazing group of young ladies that I can truly say I have been blessed to share the court with.”
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