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Posts Tagged ‘Logan Downes’

Downes 11 points away from joining exclusive club

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Logan Downes eyeballs history. (Andrew Williams photo)

We are all witnesses.

As 2024 begins to play out, Coupeville High School is deep into its 107th season of boys’ basketball and its 50th campaign for the girls.

My detective work has unearthed 658 Wolves — 414 boys and 244 girls — who have scored at least one point in a varsity hoops game.

Now, the real number is certainly higher, as the reality is there are many male players from early decades, such as the 1920’s and 1930’s, whose point totals are lost to history (and discarded score sheets).

On the girl’s side of things, other than having absolutely no stats from season #1 in 1974, we’re sitting much better.

But the reality is, with a much slower pace of play back in the (really) old school days, no one from Altus Custer or Banky Fisher’s eras would have amassed enough points to scale the school’s career scoring chart.

There is one intriguing outlier in the form of Tom Sahli, the only Coupeville grad to go on to face hoops immortal Elgin Baylor on the hardwood.

He rattled the rims for 719 points across his junior and senior seasons at CHS, but we’re missing his sophomore year (1951-1952), so may never know if he cracked the 1,000-point club.

But we do know that there are nine Wolves — five boys and four girls — who made it to four digits during their time repping the red and black (or red and white in an earlier time).

That list:

Brianne King — (1549) — (1999-2003)
Zenovia Barron — (1270) — (1994-1998)
Makana Stone — (1158) — (2012-2016)
Jeff Stone — (1137) — (1967-1970)
Mike Bagby — (1137) — (2002-2006)
Randy Keefe — (1088) — (1973-1976)
Megan Smith — (1042) — (2006-2010)
Mike Criscuola — (1031) — (1956-1960)
Jeff Rhubottom — (1012) — (1975-1978)

And we do know current CHS senior Logan Downes is just 11 points away from making it a 10-person club.

Angie and Ralph’s youngest son has torched the nets for 211 points across Coupeville’s first nine games this season, averaging 23.4 a night, so the chances the milestone moment arrives this Friday in Darrington are high.

If not, the Wolves welcome Auburn Adventist Academy to Cow Town this coming Monday, Jan. 8 in their next game.

Now, nothing is guaranteed, and not every player gets to the round numbers, no matter how talented.

Jason Bagby, a terror on the floor, finished with 499, a rimmed-out free throw shy of 500.

Amanda Fabrizi, one of the more deadly shooters in school history, finished with 299. A ref gives her credit for a three-ball on a shot where her toe touched the line and it’s 3-0-0.

Even those who reach the round numbers often get shorted.

Hawthorne Wolfe dropped in a three-ball at the state tourney on the final shot of his prep career, giving him exactly 800 points.

But a pandemic cost him a season’s worth of games across two seasons and kept him from making a run at the CHS boys’ career scoring record of 1,137 points.

So now here comes Logan Downes, who played alongside Wolfe for two seasons, making his own bid for hoops immortality.

Remember those earlier numbers.

There are 658 Wolves who we know have scored in a varsity game, and Downes would be just the 10th to top 1,000 points.

In doing so he would push the percentage of CHS players to achieve said feat to … 0.0151975683890578.

That’s historical and that’s absolutely worth celebrating.

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Stellar start, foul finale

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Chase Anderson cracked the 100-point club Thursday in Ellensburg. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

This was a nasty plot twist.

More along the lines of The Village than say, The Usual Suspects or Psycho.

The reveals at the end of those latter two classic films add to the power of what came before, while the answer to the mystery in M. Night Shyamalan’s 2004 fart-fest rightfully earned more grimaces than standing ovations.

And, while we’re here to talk basketball and not films, the end result of the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ game against Kittitas Thursday was its own straight-up flop.

The Wolves hit the floor at Central Washington University boasting a stellar 6-1 record, with their foes coming in at 1-6.

Cue the romp, as Coupeville roared out to a 15-0 lead … then gave it all back and more.

Despite holding the Coyotes scoreless for six-plus minutes to open the game, the Wolves eventually lost 63-54.

The best news? The Wolves turn around immediately and play Cle Elum-Roslyn Friday morning at 11:00 AM.

Short memories. Rain down revenge. All that jazz.

Of course, to do so, the Wolves will need to get back their shot-making ability, which all but deserted them over the game’s final 12 minutes.

Even having had its lead chipped away at, Coupeville was still up 33-25 midway through the third quarter.

Hunter Bronec had just scored on a superb give-and-go play, coming on the heels of buckets from Ryan Blouin and Logan Downes, and the Wolves, while cracking, weren’t breaking.

Then they rolled snake eyes.

Kittitas, mixing three-balls from the corners with deadly precision on its mid-range jumpers, closed the third quarter on an 18-2 tear that changed the entire flow of the game.

From eight up to eight down, and everything was spinning for the Wolves.

It didn’t get much better from there, as the Coyotes had a counter for everything Coupeville did in the final frame.

CHS got the deficit back down to four points at 58-54, after Cole White ripped a ball loose in the backcourt and fed Nick Guay for a bucket, but Kittitas hit five of six at the free throw line to seal the improbable win.

It was a stinky end to a game which started with so much potential.

Ryan Blouin buried a three-ball from the top of the arc to open things, and the Wolves couldn’t be stopped in the early going.

All five Coupeville starters recorded a bucket in the opening frame, with many of them set up by steals or blocked shots.

Hunter Bronec owned the paint, rejecting three shots — two on the same possession — while Blouin and Downes ripped off sparkling set-up passes to teammates running untouched and unruffled by too-slow Kittitas defenders.

The Coyotes finally scored at the 1:44 mark of the first quarter, on a three-point play the hard way, then got a huge chunk of their future points via three-balls.

Coupeville didn’t hit another trey after Blouin’s game opener, while Kittitas rang up eight daggers across the rest of the evening.

Downes paced the Wolves with a team-high 17, but was poked, prodded, kneed, and elbowed every time he came close to touching the ball.

His primary support came from White, who poured in 14, and Hunter Bronec, who slapped home eight points.

Chase Anderson (6), Blouin (5), William Davidson (2), and Guay (2) also scored, with Zane Oldenstadt, Timothy Nitta, Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, and Hurlee Bronec also seeing floor time.

Not to be lost in the moment, Anderson achieved a personal milestone, joining the 100-point club with a fourth-quarter jumper.

The Wolf sophomore heads into Friday’s game with Cle Elum with 101 points and counting for his varsity career.

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Road warriors can win at home, too

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim came up big at both ends of the floor Tuesday as Coupeville held off feisty Forks. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Seven games into the season, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team finally has a home win.

Of course, since the Wolves are 6-1, that little factoid probably hasn’t given Wolf coach Brad Sherman too many sleepless nights.

His squad is a pristine 5-0 away from The Rock, which bodes well for a team which heads East for two holiday games later this week.

And, given a rare chance to show out on their home court Tuesday, the Wolves did just that, outlasting a physical, persistent Forks squad to capture a 63-59 non-conference win.

Which also bodes well, as it showed a senior-heavy Coupeville hardwood team is built to withstand tough showdowns.

Forks came hard, with the Spartans giving their all in a rough-and-tumble contest which played out in front of an enthusiastic pro-Wolf crowd.

In general, the refs seemed to make an unspoken agreement to let the teams decide the game on the floor.

So instead of a night of 1,001 free throws, we got a nice, rock-em, sock-em, back-and-forth tilt in which the winner was decided based on grit and toughness.

Give the Spartans credit — they never backed down.

But give the Wolves more credit, for dropping the hammer at exactly the right moments.

And it was every Wolf making an impact, as role players Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, Zane Oldenstadt, and Hunter Bronec delivered big-time crunch plays when it mattered most.

Coupeville’s seniors bask in another win. (Michael Davidson photo)

Simpson-Pilgrim was a force on defense, anchoring Coupeville’s zone, while also cleaning the glass.

Oldenstadt and Bronec also hit the boards with zeal, setting up plays which knifed the Spartans just as they seemed primed to make their move.

Bronec snatched an offensive board and powered back up through a thicket of hands for a bucket to stake CHS to a five-point lead late in the fourth quarter.

Oldenstadt, a bearded big man who lives to bang in the paint, pulled down a defensive board shortly afterwards, flipping the ball to Logan Downes, then enjoying the show.

Slipping into his quarterback alter ego, the senior sniper launched a full-court pass and dropped it onto the fingers of a streaking Cole White, who stopped on a dime, left some change behind, and drilled a sweet little jumper as his mom lost her mind in the front row.

Not content to stop there, Downes sealed the win.

Not with any of his season-high 36 points, but with a hustle play on defense.

Down by four with the clock madly running out, Forks had a potential breakaway to slice the lead to a bucket and set up a nail-biter finish.

Instead, Downes, sprinting from one side of the floor to the other, snatched the ball away while airborne, hung motionless long enough to wink at the Forks fans, then slammed the ball off a Spartan’s crotch, the ball skidding out of bounds.

No bucket, a (sort of) Forks turnover, Coupeville possession, and time to light up a victory cigar while your foe tries to restore feeling to his tender vittles.

That capped a royal rumble in which the Spartans led early, rumbling out to a 14-9 lead late in the first quarter.

But like Muhammad Ali employing the rope-a-dope strategy, Downes was letting Forks tire itself out before launching his own string of uppercuts.

Wham-bam-and-double-wham-bam.

Three trips down the floor to end the first quarter, and three consecutive three-balls knifing through the bottom of the net, as Downes made it rain.

The final trey, staking CHS to an 18-14 lead heading into the first break, sent the CHS senior past ’70s legend Bill Riley and into 6th place on the Wolf boys career scoring chart.

With 13 regular season games left on the schedule, then a potential playoff run, Downes, who now has 956 points, trails just Jeff Rhubottom (1012), Mike Criscuola (1031), Randy Keefe (1088), Mike Bagby (1137), and Jeff Stone (1137).

While Downes racked up 15 points in the first quarter Tuesday, he wasn’t done, adding nine more in the second frame as Coupeville inched its lead out to 34-29.

Hunter Bronec delivered a tooth-rattling rejection to a Forks player probably sorry he attempted to shoot, while Chase Anderson and William Davidson had crisply delivered passes to set up key buckets.

That captured the feeling of the entire night, as while Downes was pumping in points, it was a sterling team-wide performance in every aspect of the game.

Sometimes it was Ryan Blouin, who opened things with a three-ball, then closed the third quarter by pulling up and dropping a jumper right in the face of his defender to break a 46-46 tie.

Other times it was Hurlee Bronec outdueling Spartans for crucial rebounds, Nick Guay keeping the ball whipping around the arc, or White absorbing brutal offensive charges, trying to uphold his streak of bleeding in nearly every game.

Sister Riley makes a guess at how many times Cole White has bled in a game this season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Forks made run after run and managed to tie the game up twice late in the third, but never regained the lead after Downes went on his three-ball run of terror back in the opening quarter.

That left CHS coach Brad Sherman with a satisfied smile on his face after the game, but also glad his team gets a day off to rest before their Eastern Washington games.

The Wolf boys will travel with their female counterparts, rest Wednesday, then play Kittitas Thursday and Cle Elum Friday.

After that, they’re off until Jan. 5.

In their rare home appearance, the Wolves got points from seven players, with White (8), Anderson (6), Blouin (5), Hunter Bronec (4), Hurlee Bronec (2), and Simpson-Pilgrim (2) backing up Downes (36), who broke 30 points for the third time this season.

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Buckets to score, points to count

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 11, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Teagan Calkins drives to the hoop. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

There’s 496 points in the book, and many more to come.

High school basketball is just getting revved up, and the week ahead is a busy one for Coupeville’s four hardwood teams, who each have three games on the schedule.

That will give the Wolves plenty of opportunities to fill up the bucket as individual scoring races start to shape up.

Monday is just a practice day, with games set for Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — so, an ideal time to scan those stats.

Where we stand on Dec. 11:

 

Varsity – Girls
(3 games)

Mia Farris – 22
Katie Marti – 19
Madison McMillan – 17
Lyla Stuurmans – 8
Jada Heaton – 6
Skylar Parker – 2

 

JV – Girls
(2 games)

Haylee Armstrong – 17
Capri Anter – 9
Teagan Calkins – 9
Bryley Gilbert – 7
Tenley Stuurmans – 5
Lexis Drake – 2

**Missing 26 points​​**

 

Varsity – Boys
(4 games)

Logan Downes – 91
Cole White  – 42
Ryan Blouin – 28
Chase Anderson – 13
Nick Guay – 8
Hunter Bronec – 5
Hurlee Bronec – 5
William Davidson – 4

 

JV – Boys
(3 games)

Jack Porter – 33
Aiden O’Neill – 27
Johnny Porter – 23
Camden Glover – 22
Landon Roberts – 19
Riley Lawless – 7
Davin Houston – 6
Jayden McManus – 6
Easton Green – 2
Makai Myles – 2

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Road warriors throttle Turks

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on December 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

On their way to deliver another beat-down. (Michelle Glass photo)

Call him Knute Rockne.

Whatever Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball coach Brad Sherman said at halftime Saturday, it lit a fire under his squad.

Down by six at the break in Sultan, the Wolves tore up the floor in the second half, turning a nailbiter into a 58-48 romp.

The non-conference road win over a 1A school which is slated to move to 2A next year lifts lil’ 2B Coupeville to 3-1 on the season.

It also gives the Wolves a nice bounce back after taking their first loss of the season and sends them into a busy week on a high note.

CHS hits the road again, and again, playing at Granite Falls Tuesday and Friday Harbor on Friday, before nabbing a rare home game Saturday against archrival South Whidbey.

Playing in front of a chippy crowd in Sultan, the Wolves hung tough during a back-and-forth first half.

Chase Anderson got Coupeville on the scoreboard first, hauling in a long football-style pass from Logan Downes, before the latter nailed a soft jumper of his own.

The Wolf senior had a memorable opening frame, firing another long outlet pass to Cole White for a breakaway layup, and netting the first of his five three-balls.

Downes also put up a shot which got stuck in the gap between the rim and the backboard, though he shrugged that off and kept firing.

Most of a 3-1 team. (Michael Davidson photo)

Up 11-10 at the first break, after thwarting two Sultan shots in the final three seconds, Coupeville opened the scoring in the second quarter thanks to a nifty play from Anderson.

Intended or not — and that was the subject of much debate — the super sophomore froze the defense, appeared to pass the ball to himself by bouncing it off a rival, then slashed to the hoop for a sweet layup.

Sultan responded by mounting its best run of the night, closing the half on a 15-6 run.

A trio of three-balls hurt, while a buzzer-beating turnaround jumper really stung.

Coupeville got a pair of treys, one from Downes and one from Ryan Blouin, during the stretch, but found itself trailing 25-19 at the break.

Not to worry, as Sherman said whatever he said, and, to a man, the Wolves responded.

First up was Downes, who went off for 16 of his season-high 33 points in the third quarter, sticking in knives from every angle and twisting them with wild glee.

Back-to-back three balls tied the game up, and a three-point play the hard way staked Coupeville to a lead it would not relinquish.

White, trying not to get hit in the face by a defender for the third straight game, stayed a step ahead of the Turks, draining a short jumper before slashing to the hoop for a gorgeous layup.

With William Davidson and the Battlin’ Bronec Brothers, twin titans Hunter and Hurlee, hitting the boards with passion, CHS thwarted the Turks from grabbing many second-chance opportunities.

CHS coach Brad Sherman strolls back to the bench as his Wolves prepare to attack. (Michelle Glass photo)

Sultan, down 40-28 late in the third, did cut the deficit back to 42-38 heading into the fourth, but Coupeville had an answer every time.

Anderson, bounding airborne and yanking down a pass like the football receiver he also is, came up with a crunch time bucket, while the Wolves closed things out at the free throw line.

After a Turk three-ball cut the lead down to 50-46 with about 90 seconds to play, Downes crashed through the defense for a game-sealing bucket.

From there, Anderson, White, and Downes calmly flicked charity shots through the rim, each flip of the net a slap to the face of Turk Nation.

Along with the win, the night was rich in history, as Downes moved from #13 to a tie for #9 on the CHS boys’ career scoring list.

Now sitting with 869 points and counting, he’s even with Denny Clark, just six points away from unseating Sherman (874) for #8 on a chart compiled over the course of 107 seasons.

Downes passed Wolf legends Hunter Smith (847), Bill Jarrell (855), and Arik Garthwaite (867) Saturday.

White and Anderson each banked in nine to support Downes and his 33, with Blouin (3), Hunter Bronec (2), and Hurlee Bronec (2) also scoring against the Turks.

Nick Guay, Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, and Davidson rounded out the rotation.

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