The best (and worst) free-throw shooting nights Coupeville High School boys’ hoops coach Randy King witnessed during 20 seasons.
Free throws are the greatest mystery in the history of basketball.
Conventional wisdom (and hyperventilating coaches) will always tell you the team which shoots freebies best will triumph. But, that’s not always true.
Case in point, compare the 2002-2003 Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad versus the 1994-1995 team.
Why those two?
Because, as I’ve gone through the 18 existing score-books from Randy King’s 20-year run as Wolf head coach (1991-2011), those two teams stand out for having the two most distinctive single-game free-throw shooting performances.
One team drilled all 22 shots they took in a game (only two other teams in the King era had a 100% night, and those squads shot just two and four charity shots those games), while the other went an ungodly 9-35 (26%).
But guess what?
Both teams won on those nights, even if one game probably gave Coupeville’s coach a nervous twitch.
And, while the ’02-’03 team were far better shooters — making 68% of their free-throws as a team for the season, compared to a paltry 54% from their rivals in this exercise — the ’94-’95 team actually won two more games.
As we look at those two games that jump out of the score-books all these years later, let’s get the bad out of the way first.
The night was Dec. 3, 1994, and Coupeville eked out a 71-67 win at home against Concrete.
Brad Miller banged away for 23, while Gabe McMurray hit for 17 in a close game where the Wolves led by three after one, three at the half, just two after three and four at the final buzzer.
With the game so close, their ice-cold shooting at the line (Coupeville was 2-12 in the second quarter and clanked 10 attempts down the stretch in the fourth) should have hurt them.
Helping out a bit was Concrete’s own inability to get anything started at the line, where the Lions went 7-15.
So, that means both coaches and the gathered fans got to watch 34 of 50 free throws clank off the iron.
Somewhere Rick Barry cried that night.
The second memorable night came on Jan. 3, 2003. The Wolves were on the road at Friday Harbor and this time free throws made all the difference.
Like the other game, it was a close one, with CHS clinging to a one-point lead after one quarter and at halftime.
Friday Harbor clamped down in the third, using a 15-6 run to recapture the lead at 42-36 with eight minutes to play.
At that point, the Wolves were flawless at the line, but just a modest 7-7.
Casey Clark had hit three, while Mike Bagby and Brian Fakkema were 2-2.
The fourth quarter was a master class on tickling the twines, however, as Coupeville threw down 27 points — 15 from the line — to snatch a 63-58 victory from the jaws of defeat.
Clark went off for 13 of his team-high 22 in the final eight minutes, hitting all eight of his free-throws, while Brad Sherman tossed in nine of his 21 at the same time, topped by a 7-7 streak at the line.
The 11-11 performance from Clark, who shot 85% from the line that season (60-71), is the only time a Wolf hit double digits in made free throws in one game during King’s reign.
The four guys who teamed up for the 22-22 night had wildly different success ratios in other games that season.
Sherman knocked down 76% (53-70), while Fakkema nailed 67% (37-55). Bagby, who was just a freshman, was the wild card, hitting 56% that year (25-45).
At the time, the Wolf coach marveled at his team’s performance, though in his own patented, low-key way.
“That’s a pretty good performance,” King was quoted in the Whidbey News-Times.
If only every night was that good, I know a lot of coaches who would sleep better.
Coupeville Sports 