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Posts Tagged ‘free throws’

Free throw struggles haunt Wolf boys

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Chase Anderson flies in for a bucket. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

New year, old problem.

The calendar has rolled into 2025, but a season-long cold spell at the free throw line continues to haunt the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team.

Way down the road in Wahkiakum Saturday, the Wolves netted just six of 18 at the charity stripe, leaving way too many points on the rim in what became a nail-biting 60-59 loss.

The non-conference defeat, coming against a dangerous foe, drops Coupeville to 2-8 on the season.

Brad Sherman’s squad still has plenty to play for, however, with eight of its next nine games coming against Northwest 2B/1B League rivals.

The Wolves, 1-1 in conference play, travel to Friday Harbor next Tuesday, Jan. 7, before hosting La Conner in a Friday night rumble.

The Wolves return to their own gym Jan. 10 for a major conference rumble with La Conner.

While Coupeville’s win/loss record isn’t what had been hoped for, five of the eight losses have been by single digits.

Heading into the heart of conference play, free throws loom huge.

The Wolves have consistently gotten to the line more than their rivals this season but have largely failed to take advantage of that advantage.

Saturday was a perfect example, with CHS getting to the stripe 18 times, while Wahkiakum only had 10 free throws, netting five.

Coupeville shot 33% at the line, in a contest where one made shot sends the game to overtime, and two gives the visitors a win.

Even with their free throw issues, the Wolves kept the game close until the final moments.

Chase Anderson and Hurlee Bronec combined to score 14 in the first quarter as CHS played its hosts to a 17-17 stalemate.

Down 31-29 at the half, the Wolves surged in the third quarter, with six different players tallying points during a 20-12 run.

That staked Coupeville to a 49-43 lead heading into the fourth, but Wahkiakum put together its own 17-7 streak to turn the tide of the game.

Trailing by four with mere seconds to play, the Wolves got a three-ball from Anderson to slash the deficit to one, but time ran out on the guys in red and black.

Anderson finished with a game-high 23 points, while twin towers Hurlee and Hunter Bronec both banked in 10 points in support.

Landon Roberts (6), Jack Porter (5), Malachi Somes (3), and Camden Glover (2) also scored.

Both of the Battlin’ Bronec Brothers hit personal milestones in the first game of 2025.

With his 10 points, Hunter reaches exactly 150 for his varsity career, while Hurlee cracks the 100-point club, sitting with 107 and counting.

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Free throws fuel future Wolf success

Posted in Basketball, Fundraisers, tagged , , , , on December 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Madison McMillan drains a free throw. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They shoot, you pay, everyone scores.

The Coupeville High School girls’ basketball team is conducting a fundraiser this season based on how many free throws the squad hits in varsity games.

You pledge a certain amount for each successful charity shot, then pay up at the end of the season, once all the numbers are totaled up.

All money raised goes to the Wolf program to help with equipment and supplies.

Fans can reach out to Coupeville coaches or players to get a donation sheet.

Or, if you want to get a jump start on helping out, you can also skip ahead and make a flat donation now by contacting CHS head coach Megan Richter at msmith@coupeville.k12.wa.us.

For more info, keep on scrolling down to the handy-dandy photo below.

Then, sit back and watch as the Wolves chase the kind of free-throw numbers put up by sharpshooters like Steph Curry and Larry Bird.

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Gritty Wolves storm back for win

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on May 24, 2021| 3 Comments »

Hunter Bronec, seen in pre-pandemic times, scored a team-high 10 points Saturday. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

“You showed grit and that’s what it took to win.”

As the Coupeville SWISH boys basketball team celebrated another win Saturday, that was the message coach Sean O’Neill delivered to his players.

And it was a message which resonated in the afterglow of a 27-25 victory over Sedro Woolley, a triumph clinched when Aiden O’Neill drained two free throws in the final moments.

Saturday, the Wolves opened slowly, but recovered with plenty of time left to play.

Overcoming “a horrific first eight minutes in which we couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn or play defense, we cleared our heads,” said Jon Roberts.

Twin terrors Hunter and Hurlee Bronec dominated in the paint, and Jack Porter drilled “a nice eight-footer” as Coupeville rallied to take a 15-14 lead into the halftime break.

Things weren’t going to be easy, however, as Sedro came out on fire to start the second, going off on a 6-0 tear.

Chase Anderson netted a three-ball for the Wolves to start the second comeback, then Coupeville clamped down on defense behind the spirited work of Landon Roberts.

Hunter Bronec paced his squad with a team-high 10 points, while Hurlee Bronec (6), Anderson (5), O’Neill (3), Jack Porter (2), and Johnny Porter (1) also scored.

Camden Glover and Landon Roberts round out the Coupeville roster, which is now 5-1 on the season heading into a bye week.

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Foul affair for Wolf boys

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on December 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

With 11 points Saturday, Hawthorne Wolfe becomes the first CHS hoops player to pass 100 for the season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Free throws killed them.

A huge disparity at the charity stripe was too much to overcome for the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball team Saturday in Seattle.

While the Wolves drilled all four of their freebies, The Bush School went 18-24, all in the second half, and knocked off their visitors 53-40.

The non-conference loss, coming in Coupeville’s second game in less than 24 hours, drops it to 2-4 on the season.

If the lack of love on foul calls was due to home town refs (just a thought, I wasn’t there), things will hopefully get better for CHS next week, as the Wolves play three straight in Cow Town.

Coupeville hosts Chimacum Tuesday, Port Townsend Thursday, and Nooksack Valley Saturday, then heads off to winter break.

Facing off with The Bush School, the Wolves were whistled for 16 fouls, with two players picking up four apiece.

The host Blazers were only whacked by the refs eight times, with no one on their roster picking up more than two personal fouls.

Maybe the Wolves were just too handsy, or maybe the refs were missing their seeing-eye dogs.

Like I said, I wasn’t there.

But the free throws negated Coupeville’s edge from behind the three-point arc, erased a Wolf halftime lead, and provided the final margin.

The Wolves lost by 13 — the first time this season they have been beat by double digits — and made 14 less free throws than their private school foes.

In the early going, Coupeville rode the three-ball shooting skills of senior Mason Grove and held The Bush School at bay.

Grove splashed down four first-half treys, with three of them coming in the second quarter, as the Wolves turned a razor-thin 5-4 edge after one quarter into a 18-14 bulge at the half.

But while Coupeville added another four three-balls after the break, with sophomore Hawthorne Wolfe netting three, and Grove hitting his fifth, The Bush School started to take control.

The Blazers hit 3-5 at the free throw line in the third quarter, pulling ahead 34-29 headed into the final frame, then went (slowly) bonkers down the stretch, swishing 15-19 at the stripe in the fourth.

Grove paced Coupeville with 15 points, while Wolfe dropped in 11, all in the second half.

That was most of the offense, however, with Sean Toomey-Stout, Ulrik Wells, and Jacobi Pilgrim each adding four, while Jean Lund-Olsen finished with two points.

Jered Brown, Tucker Hall, and Gavin Knoblich all saw floor time for the Wolves, while inside scoring threat Koa Davison sat out after rolling his ankle in Friday’s game.

Two Coupeville players hit personal milestones in the loss.

With his 11 points, Wolfe becomes the first CHS player, boy or girl, to cross the 100-point barrier this season.

After leading the team with 158 as a freshman, he tops the squad again, this time with 103 across the first six games, which is a hair over 17 a night.

With his first of two buckets on the night, Wells hit 100 points for his career.

He’s the fifth active CHS boys player to reach that mark, following Wolfe (261), Grove (239), Toomey-Stout (168), and Brown (125), and the 184th all-time across 103 seasons.

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Shots today pay off tomorrow

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Wolf basketball captains Ema Smith (left) and Lindsey Roberts are among their team’s best free throw shooters. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

One after another, the shots went up for a good cause.

Putting a different spin on the fundraiser concept, Coupeville High School girls basketball players raised money for their team recently by lofting free throws.

With 16 players taking part in what has become an annual event for the Wolves, 1,600 free throws sailed through the air after practice, with 856 splashing home.

Senior captain Lindsey Roberts emerged as team champ, hitting 13 in a row at one point as she narrowly edged sophomore Chelsea Prescott 71-68.

Hannah Davidson actually had the longest hot streak for the Wolves, netting 17 consecutive shots, while first-year player Morgan Stevens hit on 11 straight.

Rounding out the top five behind Roberts and Prescott were Ema Smith (61), Izzy Wells (59), and a tie between Davidson and Abby Mulholland with 58 apiece.

The fundraiser had a two-fold purpose.

First, players collected pledges for their free throw shooting, with the proceeds going to fund purchases for the girls hoops program.

And secondly, the contest gave players a chance to refine their shooting touch at the line.

The benefits of that could be seen as recently as Friday, when the Wolf varsity girls pulled out a huge two-point road win at Sultan thanks to laser-like precision at the charity stripe.

Prescott and Wells hit pressure-packed free throws in that contest, while Scout Smith won the game by draining two freebies with just 10 ticks left on the clock.

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