Beware the wrath of “The Enforcer.” Wolf senior Kyle Rockwell delivered several “Rock Blocks” Tuesday, sparking an incredible comeback win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Today, most of the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball players are 16, 17, maybe 18 years old.
Storming back from 12 down in the fourth quarter Tuesday, upending defending league champ Port Townsend 44-41 in overtime, rebounding from the worst night of the season to lay claim to the best — it’s huge in the moment.
Yet tomorrow, the Wolves return to school, family life, practice, all the routine things of life. They won’t have much time to bask in a victory which raises them to 1-0 in Olympic League play, 2-3 overall.
But wait a bit.
Give it 10 years down the road, when they come back for that first reunion.
Or 20 years down the road, when they tell the tale to their own children.
Wait until their playing days are long gone, when they are the grandfathers in the stands at games, and what went down Dec. 12, 2017 will stay with these Wolves.
It will live forever in their memories, one bright, shining moment when team meant everything, and calmness under pressure was rewarded.
They’ll look back and remember the “Rock Blocks,” resounding rejections delivered in crunch time by senior enforcer Kyle Rockwell.
Hunter Smith’s insane drive through the paint in overtime, slicing ‘n dicing three defenders as he banked home a game-winner while explosively stumbling on one foot, will remain crystal clear.
And Jered Brown’s game-clinching free throws — little rain drops of perfection splashing through the net, delivered as Port Townsend’s JV players wailed and gnashed their teeth right next to me — will be the perfect capper as old men raise their glasses and remember the thrill of youth.
Now, at this point, some of you are shaking your heads and saying, “It was just a game.”
Right…
This was Port Townsend, once invincible.
This was the RedHawks, still the kings until someone forcibly topples them from their perch.
And this was Port Townsend, the team that drove a stake through Coupeville’s heart a year ago.
The man who knifed the Wolves in last year’s thriller was Jacob Boucher, and he played a major role in Tuesday’s reversal of fortune.
This time, though, instead of hitting a game-winning three-ball, he was being sent to the locker room, ejected after getting two technical fouls, then continuing to run his mouth in the presence of the refs.
The ejection, coming on the heels of Rockwell rising up to snuff a RedHawk shot, gave Coupeville several things in one fell swoop.
Trailing 35-22, and having hit just one field goal in the entire second half, the Wolves needed a spark. Something to rile them up and make them rise up.
Bingo, Boucher.
The ejection stopped the clock, which was running away from the Wolves, it sent Smith to the line, where he swished three free throws, and it knocked a great deal of the air out of the RedHawks.
Suddenly, despite a double-digits lead, they became the tentative team, and suddenly, none of their shots would drop against a CHS defense which had reclaimed its “five wild dogs attacking as one” status.
Two more free throws from Ethan Spark, then (miracle of miracles) back-to-back field goals (the first since the four-minute mark of the third) sliced the lead to 36-32.
Port Townsend knocked down one final bucket, on a quick cut inside, but the momentum had turned and the tsunami was headed straight at the RedHawks.
A Smith free throw cut the margin to five, then Coupeville forced a turnover in the back court.
With bodies flying everywhere, the ball landed on the fingertips of Spark, who was struggling a bit with his shot.
Never fear, as, when it mattered most, the senior gunner was straight money, swishing a three-ball from the left corner to slice the lead to 38-36.
The improbable, the unexpected, the beautifully-crafted comeback reached its apex with another defensive stop, a silky-smooth pull-up jumper from Smith, and then 31 seconds of pure, golden, defensive Hell.
Port Townsend had two chances, one to take the lead, and another, after a long rebound, to outright win, but couldn’t hit either shot while being bombarded by a stifling Wolf defense.
Playing without defensive spark-plug Cameron Toomey-Stout, who rolled his ankle earlier in the game, the Wolves mixed and matched their lineup.
Rockwell, Brown and Dane Lucero, mixed with Smith, Spark and the Glass Cleaner Twins, rebounding aces Hunter Downes and Joey Lippo, brought the heat in the nerve-shredding finale.
Tied at 38-38, with a fresh four minutes added to the clock for overtime, the two teams went toe-to-toe.
This wasn’t a case of one team losing, but instead a tale of one team rising up to claim a win, no matter the cost, or how hard their foe came at them.
And give the RedHawks credit. They fought like savages to the final moment.
A gorgeous shot from Smith, hanging in air for eternity while his shot hit the back of the rim, clanked around, then flopped through, put CHS up.
Port Townsend responded, getting three the hard way, on a put-back and ensuing free throw, before Smith pulled off what might be the best basket he has ever scored.
Now, we’re talking about a guy who went for a season-high 26 points Tuesday.
A guy who passed former Wolf greats Marc Bissett, Jim Syreen, Roy Marti and Randy Duggan to move from #37 to #33 on the school’s career scoring list.
The master of calm, cool and collected, who, when he is not astounding, is just plain magnificent.
But this one, this shot, this was one for the ages.
His team trailing 42-41, the clock ticking towards 30 seconds left in overtime, Smith sucked the defense to him, then slashed/stumbled/rumbled up the gut, somehow beating the rules of gravity to stay on his feet.
Three RedHawks had a chance to stop him, and Smith made them all miserable, slapping the shot through the tiniest crack in the defense, banking the ball up off the glass and in.
All around him, madness reigned, people screamed like banshees, and, this is not 100% confirmed, but it’s possible Smith might have actually raised his eyebrow a single, solitary millimeter.
Which, for him, is the equivalent of another player ripping their jersey in half.
And yet, there’s more!
Port Townsend had not one, not two, but three close-in shots in the final seconds, but could not buy a bucket.
How the final tipped shot from Noa Montoya didn’t go down is a mystery best explained by the CHS gym having a ghost who was perfectly positioned to knock the ball back up and out of the cylinder.
With the ball on the floor, it was Brown, a five-foot-seven sophomore wandering in between the big trees, who grabbed the game’s biggest rebound.
If Smith is ever-calm, Brown’s placid demeanor when playing makes his teammate look like a raving lunatic by comparison.
It’s possible his nerves were exploding on the inside, but, on the outside, Brown projected the feeling of a cool breeze reaching out and caressing every Wolf fan’s face.
The RedHawk supporters screamed. Brown dropped in the first free throw with barely a ripple in the net.
The RedHawk supporters wailed. Brown dropped in free throw number two, and the net never moved.
Cue one final moment of madness, as Smith knocked the in-bounds pass away and time ran out before Port Townsend could get a game-tying shot off, and the celebration swept through the gym, a tidal wave of joy.
The furious finale capped a game that was very close until Coupeville’s shooting woes in the third quarter and part of the fourth allowed the RedHawks to (seemingly) pull away.
Bright spots in the early going for the Wolves came via a 7-0 run to close the first quarter, two sparkling shots from Lippo (one a three-ball, another on a quick cut under the hoop) and Coupeville’s defensive intensity.
Downes, giving up inches but compensating for it with heart, was an animal on the boards, while Rockwell continues to carve out his legend as a folk hero.
An easy-going big man who has never let blindness in one eye slow him down, the senior scored his first-ever varsity points on a pair of free throws, while rejecting three RedHawk shots while patrolling the paint.
The one-for-all-and-all-for-one mentality, the grit, the refusal to give in, all brought a huge smile to Coupeville coach Brad Sherman’s face.
Coming off a very unsatisfying game at South Whidbey Saturday, seeing his guys bounce back so quickly and so convincingly in their league opener, was all he could ask for, he said.
“A monster win!,” Sherman said. “I give all the credit to the guys on the floor.
“This all comes down to if they believe they can win,” he added. “(Assistant coach) Chris (Smith) and I believe they can, but they have to believe it. And they showed us they do.
“The way they closed out the game? Wow. Just wow. Really about all I can say.”
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