Aiden O’Neill swoops to the hoop. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
This one had everything from a buzzer-beater to a perp walk.
Put the Coupeville High School JV boys’ basketball squad in prime time, on center stage in the big gym in the night’s only game and things get wild.
And while the 2B Wolves couldn’t quite pull off the big comeback, rallying from 11 down in the fourth quarter Wednesday, before falling 64-62 to visiting 3A Oak Harbor on a putback on the final play, the end result was incredibly positive.
With most of Coupeville’s varsity comprised of seniors, a considerable chunk of the Wolf JV will be expected to move up to the big show next year.
Events like Wednesday’s battle royal will have them battle-tested when they do.
Now 7-2 after absorbing the razor-thin non-conference loss, the Wolf JV gets an immediate chance to get back in the win column Friday, when they travel to Orcas Island for a Northwest 2B/1B League clash.
Wednesday’s game, with the refs thankfully swallowing their whistles for a huge chunk of time and allowing the players to decide things on their own, was a barn burner.
It would have been worth the price of admission — except no one had to pull their wallet out on this night.
The CHS gym was surprisingly full for a JV-only affair, perhaps helped by the rivals being from just down the road.
What the assembled masses witnessed was one of the best games of the 2023-2024 season, regardless of level.
Coupeville got off to a quick start, with buckets from Aiden O’Neill and Landon Roberts staking them to a 4-0 lead seconds into play.
After that, the Wildcats surged ahead, taking the lead for good at 9-6 on a three-ball from the top, and holding it for much of the game.
The Wolves stayed close, however, with Riley Lawless ripping an offensive rebound loose, then banging home the bucket, before Roberts sliced under the basket and converted off of a laser pass from Malachi Somes.
Trailing just 13-11 at the first break, Coupeville fell behind by as many as seven in the second quarter before staging the first of many rallies.
Rising high above his defenders, O’Neill splashed home a one-handed jumper to kick-start a 6-0 tear, with Roberts and Somes also tallying points as the Wolves crept back within 24-23.
The teams exchanged buckets, with Coupeville’s coming from twin terrors Jack and Johnny Porter, and it looked for a hot second like it might stay a one-point tussle heading into halftime.
That changed however, when the refs whistled the Wolves for a ticky-tacky technical foul for a player entering the game without being waved in first (really??) and Oak Harbor slipped one of the ensuing two free throws through the twines.
With the ball back on their fingertips, the Wildcats got one more bucket before the buzzer, thanks to Max Waldron, and headed to the locker room up 31-27.
If Waldron’s basket elicited a bigger-than-expected cheer from Coupeville’s side of the bleachers, there was a reason.
The springy sophomore is the son, nephew, and grandson of Coupeville’s finest, all of whom on this night were dirty, dirty “traitors,” openly rooting against their alma mater.
Oak Harbor’s Max Waldron enjoyed a big night in the gym where uncles Matt (left) and Jerry Helm played for Coupeville. (Photo courtesy Jerry Helm)
And once he got a feel for Coupeville’s gym, Waldron lit the joint up, tossing in 11 of his 13 points in the third quarter.
Knocking down a pair of three-balls, the Wolf who isn’t (but could easily be, if his side of the family were to accept brutal reality that Wolf red and black looks better than ‘Cat purple and gold) helped keep his current squad in front.
Coupeville responded with a third-quarter mini-rampage from Camden Glover, who had a talk with mom Stevie coming out of halftime, then went off for seven points in the next frame.
The quarter ended on dueling three-point plays the hard way, with O’Neill, then Waldron slashing to the hoop for quicksilver buckets while being bashed all around the head and shoulders.
Up 50-42 entering the fourth, Oak Harbor pushed the lead out to its breaking point at 54-43 less than a minute into the quarter.
But there was little bend, and absolutely no break in the Wolves.
Roaring to life, the trio of Glover, O’Neill, and Jack Porter combined for all the points during an 11-0 surge, forcing a 54-54 tie with a hair over four minutes to play.
The visitors proved resilient as well, immediately jumping back in front 59-54, but Coupeville had one final stand left to make.
Riley Lawless scorched the net on back-to-back jumpers to get the Wolves back within one, before Johnny Porter arched a pair of free throws through the net to stake CHS to a 60-59 lead.
With the stands rocking, and the cheerleaders valiantly fighting to be heard over the roar of a hyped-up student section, the final 35 seconds were the kind to give folks heart palpitations.
Oak Harbor converted a putback to sneak ahead 61-60, O’Neill spun through a wall of defenders to drop in a bank shot to push the Wolves back in front at 62-61, and then things got really wild.
A Cat free throw tied the game at 62, and while the second charity shot slid off the rim, Oak Harbor managed to track down the runaway ball and put it back up and in seemingly at the buzzer.
Cue the celebration, and then cue the chaos.
The refs, over the protests of the visiting fans, put 1.5 seconds back on the clock, then ejected one of the Oak Harbor moms.
Who refused to go.
While Wolf fans wailed for a technical foul to be assessed, the woman in question protested, her son attempted to talk her down, and then Coupeville varsity coach Brad Sherman got to be the sheriff in town and conduct possibly his first perp walk.
It was delightfully daffy, and provided the real punctuation to the night, as the Wolves, forced to inbound the ball under Oak Harbor’s basket, only had time to throw up a floor-long Hail Mary shot in hopes of providing a run-off win.
O’Neill gave it his best heave-ho, but the one in a billion shot didn’t hit paydirt, which was not a huge surprise.
While the scoreboard reflected it as a loss, the energy in the arena, still crackling and popping as a gym’s worth of fans mingled and mixed, marked it as a win for everyone involved.
Well, maybe not the woman who got perp walked … but she’s still a legend in my book.
In the aftermath, a look at the scorebook shows seven of the eight Coupeville players to see the floor scored, led by O’Neill and his season-high 19 points.
Glover added 11, all in the second half, while Johnny Porter banked in 10 and Lawless rippled the nets for seven.
Roberts (6), Jack Porter (5), and Somes (4) also scored, while Easton Green stood tall on defense.
Oak Harbor’s Deven Gumataotao led all scorers with 21, while Waldron made his uncles proud with a 13-point effort.
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