CHS players listen to coach Brad Sherman during a timeout. (Michelle Glass photo)
This is its own thing.
The Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team put together a season for the ages last time around.
Winning league and bi-district crowns en route to their first trip to state since 1988, the Wolves were the last unbeaten 2B team in the land, winners of 16 straight to open the 2021-2022 campaign.
That won’t happen this time around.
Instead, a new-look Coupeville squad starts at 0-1, after falling 62-54 Wednesday at South Whidbey.
The non-conference loss, coming against a strong-shooting Falcon squad which features nine seniors on its roster, doesn’t have to be a crippler, however.
The Wolves don’t start league play until January, and the chance to hone their game against schools from larger classifications, such as 1A South Whidbey, could be invaluable.
If nothing else, Coupeville showed nice resilience, overcoming a poor performance at the free-throw line and the occasional growing pains of a roster in flux to rally several times.
Trailing by as many as 18 points in the second half, the Wolves kicked up their defensive effort and cut the deficit down to single digits more than once.
The rise in intensity was highlighted by the work of Cole White and Chase Anderson, who flustered the Falcons by relentlessly fighting for control of every loose ball and challenging South Whidbey’s ability to push the ball up court.
Anderson, a freshman, hit the court late with the knowledge he had five fouls to burn, and burn most of them he did, thoroughly getting under the skin of his rivals.
As the Falcons grew ever more frustrated with his refusal to step back, The Magic Man never flinched, his eyes burning a hole through their fragile psyches, before calmly strolling away, a whisper of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
The late defensive stand made up for some struggles in the beginning.
Coupeville actually outshot South Whidbey from the three-point line, winning the trey battle 7-6 by the end of the night.
But while that’s a cold, hard fact, every single one of the Falcon three-balls seemed to be a gut-punch.
None hurt worse than a miracle shot which splashed home a half of a tick before the halftime buzzer roared, pushing an eight-point South Whidbey lead to 11 as the teams left the court.
Unless it was the very next Falcon three-ball, which dropped through the net mere moments into the third quarter, sparking a 12-5 run which lifted the hosts to a 44-26 advantage.
South Whidbey led from start to finish, pushing out to an 18-11 lead after one quarter of play, and Coupeville failed to score back-to-back buckets until late in the second quarter.
The Wolves had their moments early, whether it was White popping a short jumper off of a William Davidson rebound and dish, or Ryan Blouin nailing a three-ball for his first varsity points.
But CHS couldn’t put together a sustained run for much of the night, and each time it almost did, South Whidbey stuck a quick dagger in to blunt the rally.
Wolf junior gunner Logan Downes came to life in the second half, rampaging through the paint and arcing moon shots, collecting 17 of his team-high 25 points after halftime.
That included a trio of third quarter three-balls, while running mate Alex Murdy flipped the nets on a pair of late treys.
Coupeville got as close as 58-51 late in the fourth, after Jonathan Valenzuela hauled in a pinpoint pass from Downes and slapped home a layup over a forest of Falcon arms.
But it wasn’t to be, as South Whidbey closed out the game at the charity stripe and was ruthlessly efficient.
Downes was the lone Wolf to hit double digits with his 25 points, while White (9), Murdy (8), Nick Guay (5), Valenzuela (4), and Blouin (3) chipped in.
Zane Oldenstadt, Davidson, and Anderson also saw floor time for Coupeville, which hosts 2A Lakewood Saturday.
Tip time for the varsity boys is 7:00 PM.
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Coupeville Sports 