Brian Shank, showing off his three-point form in an earlier season game. (John Fisken photo)
Something was off all day.
Playing less than 24 hours after capturing its first Cascade Conference victory in three seasons, the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball team got used and abused Saturday by the best team in the league.
King’s came to town — but only when the Knights felt like coming, as they bumped back tip-off time to accommodate some of their players taking the SATs.
Later, they asked for, and received extra warm-up time, which merely meant Wolf fans had to stare longer at the most eye-lacerating warmup pants any team in the land possesses.
Once the game actually began, and the striped pajama look was abandoned, King’s operated in their own special little world — as usual — and blistered the Wolves 73-33.
When the game’s biggest bright spot is a King’s player going up for a breakaway dunk, and muffing it badly to the great joy of the Coupeville fans, it’s a long afternoon.
Now the key for the Wolves will be to have a short memory and get right back at it, as their playoff hopes will be on the line Tuesday when they travel to Langley for a doubleheader.
Coupeville (3-12 overall, 1-9 in league play) trails South Whidbey (3-12, 2-7) by a game-and-a-half in the battle for the second 1A playoff berth from the Cascade Conference, while King’s (10-1 in league) has the top slot locked down.
The Wolves have four league games left, while the Falcons have five to play.
To make it a war, Coupeville will need to come out with the kind of energy they had Friday against Lakewood, and not the sleepwalking, two-steps-behind look they displayed for huge chunks of Saturday.
King’s rolled out quickly, throwing down breakaway layin after breakaway layin, and the game was essentially over after the first quarter.
The Wolves trailed 17-2 before they hit their first field goal — an impressive runner from Aaron Trumbull in which he split three defenders — and a Knights three-point bomb with one second to go sealed a 26-6 first quarter.
King’s only hit five three-pointers, preferring to run a layup line most of the game, but they all stung. The Knights repeated their first quarter finale by capping the third quarter with a trey at the buzzer, as well.
Other than the botched dunk, Coupeville’s primary highlight was the gritty play of senior guard Gavin O’Keefe, who dug down and scored seven of his team-high 10 in the fourth quarter.
He drove the middle hard for a bucket, knocked down a long three, then capped his mini-run with a pair of free throws at the end.
Wiley Hesselgrave added nine, Anthony Bergeron threw down four, Nick Streubel and Morgan Payne banked home three apiece and Trumbull and Joel Walstad popped for two each.
JV suffers mirror image loss: The afternoon’s opening game was virtually the same, as Coupeville fell by 40 in that one as well, losing 67-27.
The game was a bit closer than the varsity one, but a 15-0 fourth quarter padded the final margin.
Dante Mitchell and Brian Shank both dropped in three-point shots and Dalton Martin had the best one-man effort, taking a steal coast to coast and juking the defender out of his shoes before dropping a short jumper over his head.
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