Mason Grove hit for 13 Monday, including a key bucket in overtime. (John Fisken photo)
For one agonizing second, it looked like possibly the worst defeat of all time. Then, things got better.
Much better.
Coupeville Middle School 8th grade basketball guru Bob Martin might have several new ulcers after Monday’s season-opening 46-40 overtime win over visiting Chimacum, but the balm of a victory will ease the indigestion a bit.
After controlling the game from the second basket of the game until the final 30 seconds, the Wolves somehow put themselves, with a little help from a ref, in position to lose AFTER the final buzzer.
Clinging to a 38-36 lead as time wound down, the Wolves were trying to do everything but foul Chimacum on the final play of the game.
Give credit to the Cowboy ball-handler, who took advantage of the situation.
Lowering his shoulder, he slammed into a Coupeville defender, threw up a three-point air-ball that didn’t even get halfway to the rim and wished upon a star for a miracle.
And got one.
As the game buzzer sounded and the Wolves started to celebrate, the ref on the other side of the floor zoomed into the picture, whistling a foul and sending the Cowboys to the line for three free throws with the clock reading all zeroes.
Chimacum hit the first two to tie things up, then by the grace of something (maybe karma for all the screaming, frothing at the mouth and charging out of the coaches box their coach did), the third free throw slid off the rim.
Given a reprieve, Coupeville regained its senses and re-found its mojo, thoroughly dominating overtime behind the sweet free throw shooting of Sean Toomey-Stout (4-for-4 in the extra period).
The comeback, after the collapse, showed the steel in the Wolves collective spine, though, in all fairness, the game should never have gone so long.
Chimacum had big bodies, but Coupeville had more talent, with the inside/outside attack offered by Jacobi Pacquette-Pilgrim and Mason Grove being the biggest difference.
Pacquette-Pilgrim rolled to a team-high 16 points (10 of those came in the second quarter) with a variety of inside moves, while still being very much a work in progress.
As he gets stronger and more confident, realizing he can, and should dominate, he’s looking at an especially bright future.
Grove already has the cold-blooded assassin part of his game locked into place, and there is literally no spot on the court from which he is afraid to launch a long-range bomb.
He’s also super quick and goes from zero to 60 in a few footsteps, just like older sister and CHS track record holder Lauren, and that speed killed the slower Cowboys.
When Grove wasn’t letting fly from distance, he was slashing to the hoop, and his little running jumper with two minutes to play in overtime sealed the win for Coupeville.
After Chimacum hit the first bucket of the season, the Wolves took the lead right back on a trey from Grove and a layup from Toomey-Stout.
Coupeville stretched the lead out as far as nine and never relinquished it until they got cold at the worst possible time.
Up 32-27 entering the fourth, the Wolves went scoreless for nearly a four-minute stretch.
The Cowboys knotted things up at 32, Pacquette-Pilgrim stopped the carnage with back-to-back buckets, then Chimacum roared back to tie it again at 36.
Koa Davison banked in a jumper with 33 seconds to play to stake Coupeville to its final lead in regulation, before the refs decided to spice things up.
For the game, the Wolves got scoring from five players, with Pacquette-Pilgrim (16) and Grove (13) being joined by Toomey-Stout (9), Davison (6) and Omar Moralez (2).
Jered Brown also started for the Wolves, while Ulrik Wells and Jean Lund-Olsen saw key floor time.
