Hunter Smith dropped 17 in the season finale Monday. (John Fisken photo)
They will hurt you from everywhere.
Raining down pain on visiting Klahowya in the paint, out of the paint, sometimes from almost out in the parking lot, the Coupeville High School JV boys’ basketball team closed its season Monday with a bang.
Paced by 17 from Hunter Smith and 15 from DeAndre Mitchell, the Wolves crunched the Eagles 54-39 to finish with a winning record in their first go-around in the 1A Olympic League.
The young guns won eight of their final 13 games, turning around an 0-5 start to finish 8-10 overall, 5-4 in league play.
They took the season series from both Port Townsend and Klahowya.
The Wolves came out running and gunning Monday like vintage ’80s L.A. Lakers Showtime, with Mitchell standing in for James Worthy and Smith dealing the ball like Magic in his prime.
Throwing down 11 points in the first eight minutes, Mitchell, huge grin flashing at his personal cheering section, was electric.
He opened the game with a sweet jumper, added a couple of free throws, then started launching three-point bombs from improbable angles (and making them).
Where Mitchell left off, Smith and Brian Shank took over.
Smith dropped back-to-back treys of his own to kick things off in the second quarter, as Coupeville took a 19-10 lead and stretched it out to 17 before the half.
When Klahowya tried to stop the ever-slashing Smith from getting to the hoop, he fed big man Shank, who has developed a more-dangerous game as the season has developed.
Primarily an outside shooter last season, the six-foot-one sophomore now shows confidence taking the ball aggressively into the paint and he tore into the Eagles with wild abandon, dropping in several key buckets.
Coupeville saved its most eye-popping play for late in the third.
Launching a break, Smith airmailed a pass down the floor, which hit Mitchell in the hand and deflected perfectly into the waiting grasp of teammate Desmond Bell, who shot to the hoop and laid it up.
Bell later dropped in a three-ball that was so flawless the crowd gasped as it tickled the net on its way down, and the Wolves closed with a crowd-pleasing pack of five freshmen on the floor at the same time.
With their female classmates screaming their approval at decibels rarely heard inside a building, James Vidoni ripped down a rebound and almost tore off an Eagles player’s arm, before Cameron Toomey-Stout dazzled the fans with a season-closing basket.
Shank finished with eight in support of Smith and Mitchell, while Dante Mitchell (6), Bell (5), Toomey-Stout (2) and Joey Lippo (1) rounded out the scorers.
Coupeville Sports 