Jean Lund-Olsen netted a three-ball Friday for his first points of the season as the Coupeville varsity boys whacked Concrete. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
They made some noise on Silent Night.
Romping to their most lopsided win in years, the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball squad destroyed visiting Concrete Friday.
I’m not talking a 20-point or 30-point win here, either.
Catching a young Lions squad in the middle of the rebuilding process, the senior-heavy Wolves ran out to a 27-0 lead, put five players in double-digits scoring and romped to a 72-19 victory.
Yes, you read that right.
Coupeville, which has worked hard to rebuild its own program, just won by 50+ points, and in front of its home fans.
With the non-conference victory, the Wolves improve to 2-3 in a season in which they have been a handful of buckets away from being 5-0.
Heading into a match-up with The Bush School Saturday in Seattle, the CHS boys are beginning to click under third-year coach Brad Sherman, and are a dangerous squad when everything is working.
Friday night, fans wanted to cheer early, but couldn’t, as the team was holding a Silent Night game, in which everyone is supposed to remain quiet until the home team scores its 10th point.
That came fairly quickly, as the Wolves relentlessly attacked the Lions defense, which bent, then broke.
Hawthorne Wolfe banged home the game’s first bucket, off a steal and breakaway, before Sean Toomey-Stout and Jacobi Pilgrim slapped in layups.
Just like that, Coupeville was up 6-0 almost before clock operator Joel Norris was fully settled into his seat.
Quickly flexing his fingers, “The Ice Cream Man” got ready to keep up with the offensive onslaught, only to have the game halted by the one down moment of the night.
Senior big man Koa Davison, who has been having a breakout season, went down awkwardly on a play in the paint and hobbled off, forced to ice his ankle the rest of the game.
While his status going forward is unknown, any loss of time for Coupeville’s best offensive inside presence hurts.
Subbing in for Davison, fellow senior Ulrik Wells netted a pair of free-throws to stretch the lead to 8-0, and then, in a burst of speed and big-time hops, Toomey-Stout gave the crowd what it wanted.
As his layup slipped though the net, the Wolf faithful, led by former CHS hoops standout Hunter Smith losing his freakin’ mind, went bonkers — pretty much the way Coupeville Athletic Director Willie Smith had planned it.
The Silent Night idea comes from Taylor University in Indiana, which has pulled it off for 20+ seasons.
With the festivities out of the way, the Wolves, now with far-more vocal support, went right back to doing what they were doing.
Beatin’ the crud out of the Lions, who may (and I stress may) have gotten off at least one shot in the opening quarter.
Clamping down ferociously on defense, Coupeville forced turnover after turnover, then converted them into buckets in a blink of an eye.
Everyone had the magic touch, as seven different Wolves scored during a 27-0 first quarter which was unlike anything the CHS boys program has put together this decade.
Toomey-Stout tossed in eight points during the initial assault, while Mason Grove rang up another seven, including dropping the first of his three shots from behind the three-point arc.
For much of the night, the one bright spot for Concrete was the play of Levi Lowry, their 6-foot-3, 295-pound, surprisingly-nimble man in the middle.
He fought like a mad man on the boards, against great odds, and finally got the Lions into the scoring column a minute-plus into the second quarter, rolling hard inside for a three-point play the hard way.
Lowry scored Concrete’s first 13 points, and looked like he would be the only visitor to scratch his name into the scorebook until Bryon Ribera hit back-to-back corner three-balls in the final moments of the game.
While the Lions were a one-man crew for much of the night, the Wolves were the exact opposite.
Up 27-0 at the first break, they stretched things out to 44-5 at the half, then 67-13 by the end of the third quarter.
Coupeville hit three straight three-balls in the second frame, two from Grove and one from Wolfe, but that was just a set-up for a frenetic third, when CHS hit for 23 points despite a running clock being triggered a couple of seconds into the quarter.
Pilgrim was the main man, rumbling down low for three buckets, while Wolfe dropped another trey on his way to five in the quarter.
Keeping the ball moving from player to player, Coupeville again spread the love out, with seven players scoring in the quarter, then threw down a few more highlights as the clock raced from 8:00 to 0:00 in record time during the fourth quarter.
Jean Lund-Olsen came up with a spinning save on a ball about to go out of bounds, not only keeping the play alive, but ricocheting the rock right to Pilgrim, who spun around his defender for a final bucket.
Next play, some more JLO joy, as Lund-Olsen swished a long three-ball for his first points of the season.
Grove led the high-powered offensive attack, rattling the rim for 17 points, while Wolfe, Wells, Pilgrim, and Toomey-Stout collected 10 points apiece.
Rounding out the scoring were Brown (6), Gavin Knoblich (6), and Lund-Olsen (3), while Tucker Hall roughed up some folks on defense and senior Chris Ruck made his varsity debut to a huge roar from the student section.
After the game, players and fans mingled, still awash in the thrill of the rout.
Several went to Davison, offering best thoughts and encouragement as he hobbled out of the gym, ice bag still attached.
Off to the side, Brad Sherman’s four exuberant, basketball-loving little boys, perhaps the starting lineup a decade or so from now, had the time of their lives as Wolf three-ball gunner Natalie Castano helped them shoot at the far-away rim.
Eventually, Brad’s offspring would be bundled into their strollers, despite their protests, and sent home with grandma Deb and mom Abbey, while dad reflected on the win.
“Our bigs — Ulrik, Jacobi, Gavin, and Koa while he was in there — hit the offensive boards really well tonight,” Sherman said. “They all seemed really hungry on the boards, which is something we’re going to need from them going forward.
“Our defense as a team was just very impressive,” he added. “It was a really balanced team win, and that’s awesome.”
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