Mason Grove netted nine of his game-high 15 points in the fourth quarter Tuesday, as Coupeville held off pesky Granite Falls for a 52-43 win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Hop on the roller-coaster and strap your butt in nice and tight.
Tuesday’s varsity boys basketball showdown between Coupeville and visiting Granite Falls went topsy, then turvy, then nutso, before finally ending just perfect.
It was the kind of night when the Wolves blew out to a 16-point lead in the first quarter, eventually gave their advantage completely away, then closed like cold-blooded killers.
It turned into a 52-43 win, which improves Coupeville’s league standings greatly as we head into the heart of the schedule.
Now 1-2 in North Sound Conference play, 2-8 overall, CHS moves into a fourth-place tie with Cedar Park Christian (1-2, 5-8), a game-and-a-half up on Granite (0-4, 2-11).
That’s big, as five of six teams make the playoffs.
Coupeville is just a game out of second, where Sultan (2-1, 2-8) and South Whidbey (2-1, 8-4) are tied, while King’s (4-0, 9-4) is out in front after crushing South Whidbey 80-54 Tuesday.
The battle royal between the Wolves and Granite started as a blowout, as Coupeville blistered the net in the early going.
Sparked by Gavin Knoblich, a solid role player who suddenly morphed into a can’t-miss shooter, CHS roared out to a 13-1 lead, before stretching it all the way out to 20-4 in the final moments of the first quarter.
The ball was moving, the passes were crisp and purposeful, and one Wolf after another took turns setting up their teammates for easy buckets.
Ulrik Wells opened the game with a soft lil’ jumper, set up by a nice dish from freshman Hawthorne Wolfe, then Wells turned around and popped a perfect pass that Knoblich translated into a layup.
Knoblich came back around to net a three-ball, with Wolfe netting the assist, before Wolfe launched his own trey from well behind the arc.
As all this was happening, Sean Toomey-Stout was bouncing and bounding, snaring rebounds, chasing down errant passes, harassing any Tiger within several hundred feet and being electrifying every time the ball was in his hands.
Taking steals coast to coast, banking left-handed leaners while hovering in mid-air, “The Torpedo” knocked down eight points in the opening frame, one better than Knoblich.
At that point, the Wolves looked like a team on its way to an 80-point night, but then the rim turned unforgiving for a bit.
Granite closed the first quarter with a three-ball of its own, then continued to chip away in the second frame.
Wolfe and Mason Grove sank long treys under great duress, but a 16-point lead was chiseled down to 28-20 by the half.
The successful shots got fewer and farther between in the third, and, despite Wolf big men Wells and Jacobi Pilgrim fighting like beasts in the paint, Coupeville finally saw its lead completely evaporate.
Granite slipped a pair of free throws through the net to claim its first lead of the night at 33-32, and it could easily have been the moment the Wolves cracked and completely fell apart.
But they didn’t.
Grove drilled the bottom of the net out on the very next play, his three-ball lifting CHS back in front, and he and his teammates displayed a calmness, mixed with derring-do.
Even when the Tigers knotted the game at 36 right before the third quarter buzzer, the Wolves never flinched.
And never stopped attacking, which might have been even bigger.
Coupeville rolled out of the timeout between quarters ready to run, and struck quickly, with Wolfe slashing through the defense and flicking a pass to Knoblich, who drained a jumper from the side.
Another three-ball from Grove, paired with a free throw by Wells, and the lead was back to six.
The visitors tried to keep the pressure on, tossing in a trey to pull back within 42-39, but Grove wasn’t having it.
Catching his defender off balance, the CHS junior rimmed out a three-ball, but caught the Granite player leaning and suckered him into picking up the foul.
Awarded three free throws, Grove barely rippled the net, sinking each one with the precision of an assassin slipping a dagger between the rib cage of his foes.
Granite crumbled from that point, unable to hit anything from the field the rest of the way, while Coupeville closed with three stellar buckets.
Wolfe tiptoed through a maze of defenders, flicking home a roller over outstretched arms.
Wells yanked down a rebound, then did a ballerina twirl and knocked down a mini-hook shot.
And the final dagger? It came from Grove, naturally, as he capped a season-best 15-point show by burying yet another three-ball, this time while on the move to his left.
The victory, and the way his players pulled it out, brought a smile to Coupeville coach Brad Sherman’s face afterwards.
“It was a great team win,” he said. “I love how much fire we came out with.
“We knew Granite would make a run at some point, but we didn’t let it go; I’m proud of how much fight they showed,” Sherman added. “They played pretty tough all game, diving on the floor for loose balls, doing what you have to do to win a tight game.”
Coupeville spread its offense among six players, with Toomey-Stout rumbling for 11 to back up Grove’s 15. Knoblich added nine, Wolfe rattled home eight, Wells netted five and Pilgrim banked home four.
Jered Brown and Dane Lucero rounded out a short roster for the Wolves, providing smooth ball-handling and defensive grit, respectively.
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