Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim came up big at both ends of the floor Tuesday as Coupeville held off feisty Forks. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Seven games into the season, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team finally has a home win.
Of course, since the Wolves are 6-1, that little factoid probably hasn’t given Wolf coach Brad Sherman too many sleepless nights.
His squad is a pristine 5-0 away from The Rock, which bodes well for a team which heads East for two holiday games later this week.
And, given a rare chance to show out on their home court Tuesday, the Wolves did just that, outlasting a physical, persistent Forks squad to capture a 63-59 non-conference win.
Which also bodes well, as it showed a senior-heavy Coupeville hardwood team is built to withstand tough showdowns.
Forks came hard, with the Spartans giving their all in a rough-and-tumble contest which played out in front of an enthusiastic pro-Wolf crowd.
In general, the refs seemed to make an unspoken agreement to let the teams decide the game on the floor.
So instead of a night of 1,001 free throws, we got a nice, rock-em, sock-em, back-and-forth tilt in which the winner was decided based on grit and toughness.
Give the Spartans credit — they never backed down.
But give the Wolves more credit, for dropping the hammer at exactly the right moments.
And it was every Wolf making an impact, as role players Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, Zane Oldenstadt, and Hunter Bronec delivered big-time crunch plays when it mattered most.
Coupeville’s seniors bask in another win. (Michael Davidson photo)
Simpson-Pilgrim was a force on defense, anchoring Coupeville’s zone, while also cleaning the glass.
Oldenstadt and Bronec also hit the boards with zeal, setting up plays which knifed the Spartans just as they seemed primed to make their move.
Bronec snatched an offensive board and powered back up through a thicket of hands for a bucket to stake CHS to a five-point lead late in the fourth quarter.
Oldenstadt, a bearded big man who lives to bang in the paint, pulled down a defensive board shortly afterwards, flipping the ball to Logan Downes, then enjoying the show.
Slipping into his quarterback alter ego, the senior sniper launched a full-court pass and dropped it onto the fingers of a streaking Cole White, who stopped on a dime, left some change behind, and drilled a sweet little jumper as his mom lost her mind in the front row.
Not content to stop there, Downes sealed the win.
Not with any of his season-high 36 points, but with a hustle play on defense.
Down by four with the clock madly running out, Forks had a potential breakaway to slice the lead to a bucket and set up a nail-biter finish.
Instead, Downes, sprinting from one side of the floor to the other, snatched the ball away while airborne, hung motionless long enough to wink at the Forks fans, then slammed the ball off a Spartan’s crotch, the ball skidding out of bounds.
No bucket, a (sort of) Forks turnover, Coupeville possession, and time to light up a victory cigar while your foe tries to restore feeling to his tender vittles.
That capped a royal rumble in which the Spartans led early, rumbling out to a 14-9 lead late in the first quarter.
But like Muhammad Ali employing the rope-a-dope strategy, Downes was letting Forks tire itself out before launching his own string of uppercuts.
Wham-bam-and-double-wham-bam.
Three trips down the floor to end the first quarter, and three consecutive three-balls knifing through the bottom of the net, as Downes made it rain.
The final trey, staking CHS to an 18-14 lead heading into the first break, sent the CHS senior past ’70s legend Bill Riley and into 6th place on the Wolf boys career scoring chart.
With 13 regular season games left on the schedule, then a potential playoff run, Downes, who now has 956 points, trails just Jeff Rhubottom (1012), Mike Criscuola (1031), Randy Keefe (1088), Mike Bagby (1137), and Jeff Stone (1137).
While Downes racked up 15 points in the first quarter Tuesday, he wasn’t done, adding nine more in the second frame as Coupeville inched its lead out to 34-29.
Hunter Bronec delivered a tooth-rattling rejection to a Forks player probably sorry he attempted to shoot, while Chase Anderson and William Davidson had crisply delivered passes to set up key buckets.
That captured the feeling of the entire night, as while Downes was pumping in points, it was a sterling team-wide performance in every aspect of the game.
Sometimes it was Ryan Blouin, who opened things with a three-ball, then closed the third quarter by pulling up and dropping a jumper right in the face of his defender to break a 46-46 tie.
Other times it was Hurlee Bronec outdueling Spartans for crucial rebounds, Nick Guay keeping the ball whipping around the arc, or White absorbing brutal offensive charges, trying to uphold his streak of bleeding in nearly every game.
Sister Riley makes a guess at how many times Cole White has bled in a game this season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Forks made run after run and managed to tie the game up twice late in the third, but never regained the lead after Downes went on his three-ball run of terror back in the opening quarter.
That left CHS coach Brad Sherman with a satisfied smile on his face after the game, but also glad his team gets a day off to rest before their Eastern Washington games.
The Wolf boys will travel with their female counterparts, rest Wednesday, then play Kittitas Thursday and Cle Elum Friday.
After that, they’re off until Jan. 5.
In their rare home appearance, the Wolves got points from seven players, with White (8), Anderson (6), Blouin (5), Hunter Bronec (4), Hurlee Bronec (2), and Simpson-Pilgrim (2) backing up Downes (36), who broke 30 points for the third time this season.
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