Ulrik Wells was a force on both ends of the floor Tuesday, as Coupeville drilled Friday Harbor 54-41 in a scrimmage. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
No one has touched them this spring.
And with that word – spring – we can probably simmer down, but still, the Coupeville High School boys basketball team is off to a strong start.
First came a 5-0 run through the Crescent Classic, and Tuesday, it was time for the Wolves to lace up their sneakers and go toe-to-toe, and three-ball-to-three-ball, with visiting Friday Harbor in a scrimmage.
Playing two 25-minute halves, with a running clock and refs working the floor, Coupeville rebounded from a slow start, then poured it on, building a 24-point second-half lead before walking off with a 54-41 victory.
And it was those three-balls which did a lot of the damage.
Back-to-back daggers from Hawthorne Wolfe and Logan Martin gave the Wolves the lead for good midway through the first half, and, by the time it was done, CHS rained down 10 shots from behind the arc.
The two teams played with very different styles, as Coupeville won the three-point battle 10-3 (providing a nice 30-9 cushion), while Friday Harbor spent much more time at the free-throw line, carving out a 16-4 advantage in made shots.
In the early going, the Wolves hit the boards with ferocity, getting strong glass-cleaning work from the trio of Ulrik Wells, Gavin Knoblich, and Jacobi Pilgrim.
Only problem is, Coupeville couldn’t get anything to drop, going nearly five minutes into the game before any of its players found the bottom of the net.
That was Knoblich, who finally broke the seal on the rim, banging home a short runner in the paint off a feed from Sean Toomey-Stout.
Koa Davison immediately hit a shot of his own the next trip down the floor, pulling off a bang-bang give-and-go play with Knoblich.
That cut the margin to 5-4, and the game stayed as a one or two basket affair for the game’s first 14 minutes.
Daniel Olson picked the pocket of a Friday Harbor guard, then crashed end-to-end, smacking the layup home under great duress, to stake CHS to its first lead at 8-7.
But it was the final 10-11 minutes of the first half which radically changed the flow of the game.
Three different Wolves — Martin, Wolfe, and Davison — splashed home three-balls as Coupeville went on an 11-0 run, gave back one single, solitary bucket, then tacked on another quick seven points.
The eventual 18-2 surge carried CHS into the halftime locker room up 26-13, and Friday Harbor would never remotely sniff the lead again.
The Wolves, who had a 12-7 advantage in players — even with varsity vets Mason Grove and Jered Brown sitting out the game — used their depth to run the visitors a bit ragged, especially after the break.
Coupeville used a 14-3 surge coming out of the break, with Wolfe hitting for eight of the points, to push its lead out to 40-16, which would be the high-water mark for the afternoon.
Brad Sherman’s squad mixed it up, using the long ball to knock Friday Harbor back on its heels, before utilizing crisp, efficient passing to garner buckets on quick slashes to the hoop.
While Wolfe dropped three of his four treys in the second half, his prettiest bucket came on a little one-hander that was set up by a one-man-wrecking-crew play from Wells.
The CHS big man took the ball three-quarters the length of the court, sucked the defense to him, then flicked a perfect lil’ set-up pass to Wolfe, who was strolling through the paint, acting all innocent until he gutted the defense.
Other Coupeville players had big moments, as well.
Knoblich nailed back-to-back buckets, one after he chased down a loose ball, then spun and hit nothing but net, the other on a shot which made almost as many bounces on the rim as Kawhi Leonard’s series winner against Philly.
When Wells wasn’t setting others up, he was benefiting from the positive karma he had collected.
Martin, holding down the back line, went airborne to reject a Friday Harbor shot, smashing the ball right onto Wolfe’s fingertips.
Skipping second gear, and going right to third, Wolfe spun down the right side of the court, before zipping the ball on a bead to Wells coming down the left, setting him up for a sweet layup.
Then there was Xavier Murdy, the right man in the right place, with the right touch on the ball.
Davison drove the lane, got hammered by multiple enforcers, and saw the ball pop loose and shoot towards the sideline.
But, a mere moment before the orb disappeared for good, Murdy, coming in hot, yanked the ball out of the air, reversed on a dime and let fly with a fall-away three-ball.
Time stopped for a second, then ball tickled the twines as it landed with a soft, satisfying plop, sending Wolf JV players in the stands into near hysterics.
In the end, nine of the 12 Wolves in uniform scored, led by Wolfe’s game-high 15-point performance.
Knoblich (6), Martin (6), Jean Lund-Olsen (6), Davison (5), Murdy (5), Olson (5), Wells (4), and Toomey-Stout (2) also scored.
Wolfe ruffled the nets for a crowd-pleasing four treys, while Lund-Olsen and Martin netted two apiece. Murdy and Davison rounded out the three-ball assassins.
While they didn’t score, Pilgrim, Tucker Hall, and Sage Downes all delivered with strong work on the defensive end of the floor.
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