“I told ’em, you stay in that man-to-man defense and you box out like a beast. They listened … for once.” (Olivia Kelley photo)
The defense was inspired.
Holding Arlington scoreless until a buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter Saturday, the Coupeville 6th grade boys’ basketball SWISH squad rolled to a convincing 24-6 victory.
The win lifted the Wolves to 4-3 with two games to play in the regular season.
Coupeville closes with match-ups against Ferndale and Burlington-Edison before starting the postseason push.
Facing a hack-happy Arlington team that eventually fouled out three players (and had a fourth benched for his behavior), the Wolves rolled out to a 14-0 lead at the half.
After a brief 6-2 run by their rivals, Coupeville closed out the game with another 10 straight, many from the free-throw line.
Matthew Kelley paced the Wolves, hitting for 10, with a three-point bomb and seven charity stripe shots. He also snatched 14 rebounds to nail down his second double-double of the season.
Sage Downes (four points, nine rebounds, three blocked shots), Daniel Olson (four points, four rebounds, two blocked shots), Jake Mitten (three points, six steals, eight rebounds), Alex Jimenez (two points) and Dakota Eck (one point, two steals) all filled up the stat sheet as well.
When they weren’t scoring, the Wolves were lights out on defense.
“They were a solid wall with Olson and Sage wreaking havoc on Arlington’s guards while Kelley, Mitten and Eck would not permit shots in the paint or lower perimeter,” said Coupeville coach Pat Kelley. “Jimenez and Erik Webster assisted down low repeatedly stopping Arlington’s attempts to enter the paint or shoot anything other then a far three attempt.
“Logan Downes and Michael Laska assisted on the top of the key with a stifling attack that prevented Arlington from moving the ball,” he added. “Defensively it was the best game of the season.”
Coupeville Sports 