Logan Downes flies to the hoop. (Morgan White photo)
Game of the year, regardless of the final score.
The Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team waged a brawl with visiting Sultan Saturday night, falling just a miracle shot shy of knocking off their undefeated foes.
Instead, as a buzzer-beating full court heave failed to find paydirt, the Turks escaped The Rock with a 73-71 win in a double-overtime thriller.
With the triumph, Sultan, which already has victories against Cashmere, University Prep, and South Whidbey — the last by 22 points — rises to 4-0 on the season.
Coupeville drops to 1-3 with the non-conference loss, with all of its defeats coming to bigger schools.
As they prepare to defend their league crown, the 2B Wolves are working their way through a tough patch of early-season foes, with hard-fought losses to a 2A school and a pair of 1A programs.
None was harder fought than Saturday’s tango on the hardwood.
It was the kind of back-and-forth slugfest where neither team led by more than six points in regulation, and one team’s surge was almost immediately met by a run from their foe.
Sultan led throughout the first quarter, but a couple of nice buckets from Wolf point guard Cole White — the first a three-point play the hard way in the paint, the second a pullup jumper — kept CHS close.
Down 13-9 at the first break, Coupeville fought back behind the aggressive two-way play of Nick Guay.
The junior banger drilled three free throws, including one courtesy a Sultan technical foul, to pull CHS within 18-17, before slapping home an offensive rebound to push the Wolves in front.
Sultan answered with its own 8-3 surge, but Coupeville closed the half with back-to-back buckets to carry a 27-26 advantage in at the half.
Logan Downes made off with a steal, then beat everyone down court for a layup, before Guay drilled the bottom out of the net on a three-ball set up by a crisp Ryan Blouin pass.
Coupeville pushed its lead out to five points midway through the third quarter, after Alex Murdy netted one of five three-balls he hit in the game, and things were looking peachy.
But bam, continuing a game long trend, the other team immediately rallied.
Sultan closed the quarter on an 11-2 push — with just Guay rattling home a jumper from the side for the Wolves — before opening the fourth with a quick layup.
Trailing 43-37, it was suddenly Coupeville’s turn to get electric, however.
Murdy and Downes popped three-balls on back-to-back trips up the court, and a 10-0 Wolf run had coach Brad Sherman humming happily.
Little did he, or anyone else in the joint, know the game would go on much longer than expected.
Guay and Murdy had big buckets during the final moments of regulation, with both teams preserving a 53-53 tie with late-game defensive heroics.
Sultan picked an inbounds pass with 22 ticks to play, before a wild almost-final play featured a Coupeville steal on one end of the floor, followed by Sultan snatching the ball back but getting whistled for a travel.
It looked like the refs were going to shank the Turks with a home-town call, whistling a foul with less than a second to play.
But instead of sending Guay to the line to win the game, the zebras decided the hack had been on the floor, and not in the air.
That sent the ball back out of bounds, and Coupeville, while getting the pass in, couldn’t get a shot off before the buzzer ripped through the night air.
So, it was on to overtime for one and all … unless, like me, you were home with a head cold and watching the action unfold on the NFHS Network.
Fully embracing its well-deserved rep as the burning dumpster fire of the streaming world, NFHS promptly ended its broadcast, sending me scrambling and cussing loud enough to probably disturb every cat within a five-mile radius.
What do I want for Christmas?
For someone to come along and spend like $2.41 and make a better high school sports streaming service than NFHS.
That’s what I want.
Anyway, piecing together the first overtime from hearsay and rumors, I can tell you Murdy was feeling it, raining down shots as the teams each tallied eight points.
Alex Murdy rumbles. (Morgan White photo)
Still knotted at 61-61, the Turks and Wolves were off to a second extra period, and I finally found a Wolf Mom broadcasting on Facebook Live.
Cue a brutal start for Coupeville fans, as Sultan rolled out to a 70-63 lead.
But then, even though LL Cool J will tell you not to call it a comeback, that’s exactly what transpired.
Murdy with a three-ball? Splat.
Offensive foul on Sultan? Zing.
Downes nailing a three-ball, then converting two pressure-packed free throws? Boom, baby.
Coupeville was clinging to a 71-70 lead with the ball in Sultan’s hands and less than a half-minute remaining in the second OT.
And give the Turks credit.
They responded like seasoned pros, hitting a runner to reclaim the lead, forcing a Wolf turnover, then converting one of two free throws.
And yet, Sultan still left the door open a crack, clanking two more free throws at the very end, allowing Coupeville to at least dream of a Sportscenter-worthy walk-off full-court shot.
It wasn’t to be on this night, though Coupeville’s coaches left content with the effort their players gave.
“Really cannot say enough about the heart our boys played with,” Brad Sherman said. “Sultan is a really good basketball team.
“Aside from points in book — Cole took three charges, I think,” he added.
“Nick played big tonight and Jon (Valenzuela) is making a lot happen with his hustle plays.”
Murdy paced the Wolves with a season-high 25 points, while Downes slapped home 21 as he topped 20 points for the fourth time in as many games.
Guay added a varsity career-best 16, while White popped for nine as Coupeville got all of its scoring from four players.
Dominic Coffman, Valenzuela, Blouin, and Zane Oldenstadt also saw floor time for the Wolves.
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