Xavier Murdy scored 22 points Thursday as Coupeville won a wild one 66-65. (Jackie Saia photos)
Just call ’em the Hurricane busters.
Xavier and Alex Murdy scored 12 of Coupeville’s final 15 points Thursday, including the game-winning free throws, as the Wolves pulled out one of the most-dramatic wins in the 104-year history of CHS boys basketball.
Fighting foul trouble all game, Coupeville built a 14-point lead, blew it all, then came back around to ice visiting Mount Vernon Christian 66-65 in a game capped by the student section storming the floor.
The second win over a major Northwest 2B/1B League rival in as many days, it lifts Coupeville to 5-3 and keeps it in the thick of the chase for a league title.
Now, the Wolves carry a three-game winning streak to Orcas Island Saturday, where they’ll face a 5-2 Vikings squad.
MVC also sits at 5-2, with both of those losses coming at the hands of Coupeville.
The first time the teams squared off, Hawthorne Wolfe blitzed the Hurricanes for 38 points and CHS won fairly easily.
This time out, a trio of refs who combined to have a less-than-stellar game fouled Wolfe out of the contest with six minutes to play, sending Coupeville’s main gunner to the bench.
In stepped Alex Murdy, and the sophomore responded in crunch time with his best performance as a varsity player, teaming with older brother Xavier to thwart and bedevil the Hurricanes and their hyped-up cheering section.
The biggest plays came with the clock frozen at 11 seconds left to play in the fourth quarter and Coupeville trailing by a single point.
Having built a 14-point second-half lead, only to fall behind by six, the Wolves went on a 9-2 run to reclaim the lead at 64-63.
Then promptly lost it after MVC banged home a bucket in the paint — after the Hurricanes somehow got away with body-slamming Grady Rickner to the floor at the other end as he drove to the hoop.
Not a ticky-tacky foul.
Not a questionable call.
A pile driver worthy of a WWE title bout, which sent the Coupeville captain into an unpleasant collision with the floor, his body crumpling in pain and surprise.
The non-call, which came as one ref stared silently as the play unfurled mere inches in front of him, sent the Coupeville faithful into screaming fits of righteous fury.
But redemption was mere seconds away, as Alex Murdy was hip-checked as he brought the ball past the scorer’s table.
Sent to the line with both sections of the stands rockin’ and rollin’, Xavier’s younger brother carried himself with a surprising calmness.
Perhaps Alex was having a seizure deep inside his soul.
If so, he never betrayed it, calmly sinking the tying and go-ahead charity shots, before being mobbed by his ecstatic teammates.
Alex Murdy (center) celebrates his game-winning free throws.
MVC still had a chance, putting the ball in the hands of its most-dangerous player — 8th grader Davis Fogle, who scored 21 points — but the (really) young gun couldn’t get his potential game-winning layup to stay in the basket.
Cue Coupeville students rumblin’ and tumblin’ onto the court as if the Wolves had just won a state title.
While it might not be to that level, it is potentially one of those defining wins where you look back 10 years later and point to it as the moment where a program really made a statement.
CHS coach Brad Sherman, who was a player the last time the Wolves won a league title, had the look of a man who had gone through the whirlwind and lived to tell about it.
But it was a happy tiredness, and a proud tiredness.
“So proud of the heart our boys showed tonight,” Sherman said. “We put four strong quarters together, and we did it back-to-back nights (after beating La Conner on the road Wednesday).
“Shows how resilient these guys are.”
Even with its foul trouble starting in the game’s opening moments, Coupeville controlled the game from opening tip until late in the third.
Daniel Olson knocked down the game’s first bucket, snatching a rebound and powering past several Hurricanes for the put-back, and five Wolves scored in the opening quarter.
A three-ball from Sage Downes, followed by Grady Rickner slapping home a layup off a sharply-angled inbounds pass sent Coupeville to the first break up 13-8.
Wolfe and Xavier Murdy carried most of the scoring load in the second quarter, combining for 19 of their team’s points in a 23-16 run.
X-Man dropped in a pair of treys — one set up by a Logan Martin rebound and kick-out, the other coming off a steal — while Hawk got ridiculous.
He poured in 11 points in the frame, with a pair of three-balls on which he released the ball while dribbling somewhere out around Deception Pass Bridge.
Add in a smooth sideline jumper from Martin and a steal and layup for Alex Murdy, and the Wolves were in control at 36-24 at the half.
Things got better in the third quarter, as Coupeville twice stretched its lead to 14 points.
One of those moments came when Wolfe, hanging in the air for an eternity, dropped in a short runner to pass 1950’s CHS star Pat Clark and move into 36th place on the school’s career scoring chart.
But MVC wasn’t done, as the Hurricanes launched a torrid comeback in the fourth.
A 19-4 run put the visitors up 63-57 and things looked dire.
Enter the Murdy boys, and exit any worries.
Xavier swished four consecutive free throws, stepped aside to let Martin nail a charity shot of his own, then returned to slash through the paint for the bucket which reclaimed Coupeville’s lead.
Which brings us back to his sibling getting his magical moment.
A moment which prompted the older brother, who’s pretty low-key about his own big plays, to bust out his biggest smile of the night, reveling in Alex’s success.
It was a grand night for the Murdy boys all around, with Xavier topping all scorers with 22 points.
Jumping from #150 on the CHS boys career scoring chart to #138, he passes notable names from the past like Anthony Bergeron, Scott Stuurmans, and Dale Sherman.
Wolfe added 16 points, with Alex Murdy finishing with eight.
Olson (6), Downes (5), Martin (5), and Grady Rickner (4) also scored, with TJ Rickner sacrificing part of a tooth while crashing the boards like Dennis Rodman in his furious prime.
TJ Rickner battles in the trenches.
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