Chase Anderson flies in for another breakaway bucket. (Jackie Saia photos)
Let the hate flow through you, but channel that anger.
Finding the balance between the light and the dark sides of the basketball force Friday, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball players kept their composure under extreme stress and captured a statement win.
Holding off a rough-and-ready Mount Vernon Christian squad 54-51, the Wolves overcame questionable calls and frequent blows to assorted body parts, handing the Hurricanes their first conference loss of the season.
The win, a huge bounce back after a last-second loss to La Conner, lifts CHS to 4-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 11-3 overall.
It also keeps the Wolves right in the mix for a league title, as they chase the Braves (4-0, 11-5) — who they reunite with in La Conner Feb. 6 — and MVC (6-1, 6-10).
Friday’s win was a testament to team play, as Coupeville got something from everyone on the floor.
The ‘Canes made a point of trying to stifle Wolf senior Logan Downes, who entered the night needing 36 points to become the #1 scorer in CHS boys’ basketball history, clamping down on him at every turn.
Or just hitting him repeatedly around the head and shoulders, or anywhere their slap-happy fingers could reach.
Downes responded by finding other ways to set up his team for success, soaring for rebounds, firing floor-length passes to a galloping Chase Anderson, and taking offensive charges.
Teammates like Nick Guay and William Davidson stepped up with huge buckets, then, as the defense slipped a bit here and there, Downes twisted himself into a pretzel to knock down buckets to deflate the ‘Canes at crunch time.
The first quarter was a rock ’em, sock’ em extravaganza, knotted up at 9-9 after eight torrid minutes.
Cole White and Ryan Blouin sacrificed their tail bones, absorbing body blows and drawing offensive fouls on their rivals, while Hunter Bronec fought like a wild man down in the mosh pit that was the paint.
A three-ball off of White’s slender fingertips caressed the net to force the tie, then Downes finally got a sliver of room in which to operate in the second quarter.
He went off for nine points in the frame, with Blouin and White adding daggers, and CHS clung to a 22-21 lead at the half, after a hasty conference at the scorer’s table confirmed the score.
MVC pulled ahead for the final time at 28-26 early in the third quarter, before Coupeville made its move.
A 12-3 run to end the frame included a silky three-ball from Downes and back-to-back big plays from Coupeville’s often unsung role players.
Guay, taking off like a rocket, hauled in a long outlet pass, banking in the ball while being battered in living color, pulling off a three-point play the (very) hard way.
Then it was time for Mr. Twinkle Toes to dance the dance of his people, as Davidson, among the spriest of big men, twirled through the paint, lofting in a soft lil’ jumper to make it 38-31.
Brad Sherman draws up a top-secret play.
The final frame was a donnybrook, with Coupeville getting the lead up to nine, but no higher, while MVC kept making mini runs at tying things up.
Downes banked in nine more points in crunch time, but it was Anderson with the freeze-frame shot to the solar plexus.
Having been body-slammed off the floor, before having his foot ripped off his body at another moment, the slender sophomore was a walking, (always) talking full body bruise.
But, like Muhammad Ali rope-a-dopin’ fools into submission before knocking their heads off, Anderson ignored his aches and pains in the final minute, going airborne and throwing down an eye-popping shot while sliding through a slender space in the defense made for a gnat.
MVC drained a late trey to cut the margin to three but couldn’t buy a miracle at the buzzer as all five Wolves sold out on defense, forcing an awkward heave in the general direction of the rim as time expired.
Wolf coach Brad Sherman gave 10 players floor time in the win, with seven of them scoring.
Downes finished with a gutsy 25, and heads into a Saturday home game with Neah Bay sitting with 1,127 points, needing 11 to pass Jeff Stone and Mike Bagby.
Anderson banked in 11 in support, with Bronec (6), White (5), Guay (3), Blouin (2), and Davidson (2) also tallying points.
Hurlee Bronec, Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, and Zane Oldenstadt also saw action for CHS, crashing the boards with intensity.
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