After battling back from injury, Koa Davison returned to the lineup Friday, making key plays on both ends of the floor. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Middle school players show some love for Hawthorne Wolfe, who rattled home a team-high 14 points. (Morgan White photo)
One team owned crunch time Friday, but it was the wrong team.
Unable to hold on to a 10-point third quarter lead, unable to hit a field goal in the game’s final six minutes, and unable to get a defensive stop when it mattered most, the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball squad absorbed a body blow.
Falling 57-52 to visiting Sultan, which closed the game on a 10-0 run, the Wolves lost out on a chance to stay unbeaten in North Sound Conference play.
Instead, CHS slides to 1-1 in league action, 4-6 overall, and sits in a tie with Cedar Park Christian (2-2, 6-6), which it hosts next Tuesday.
King’s (3-0, 7-7) tops the standings, followed by South Whidbey (2-1, 10-3), while Granite Falls (1-3, 3-8) and Sultan (1-3, 2-9) bring up the rear.
With a win, Coupeville would have held sole possession of second place, just a half game off of front-runner King’s.
And, for much of the night, the Wolves looked like they were headed for victory.
Despite some atrocious free throw shooting — CHS finished just 8-23 at the line, while Sultan was 11-15 — the hometown hoopsters led for much of the game.
Once they grabbed the advantage at 21-18 early in the second quarter, thanks to a Mason Grove three-ball from the top of the arc, the Wolves held fast to it, eventually stretching things out to 44-34 late in the third.
But the fourth quarter was Coupeville’s Kryptonite, as Sultan disrupted the flow of the game.
The Wolves only field goal in the final frame came off of an offensive rebound put back up and in by Ulrik Wells, but they needed more.
The put-back, coming with 5:55 to play in the game, staked CHS to a 50-43 lead, but the Turks steadily chipped away.
A free throw and a three-ball, with the trey coming off a third-chance offensive rebound, tightened the margin to 50-47 and nothing would stay in the bucket for the Wolves.
Two free throws from sophomore Xavier Murdy pushed the lead back out to five points, but the Turks countered with a pair of charity shots of their own, plus yet one more very-long three-ball to tie the game up.
Coupeville had a chance to retake the lead, only to clank a pair of free throws at the 1:19 mark, followed almost immediately by the game-busting play.
It came courtesy of a wild drive up the middle, with the Turk ballhandler throwing down a layup under duress, then tacking on a free throw after he was pummeled by a pack of Wolves.
With most of the air sucked out of the CHS gym, Coupeville capped its ice-cold fourth quarter shooting performance by bouncing two more shots off the iron, and what seemed like a likely win ended in something far less desirous.
As he stared numbly at the scorebook after the game, Wolf coach Brad Sherman didn’t affix blame, but offered praise for his team’s opponents.
“Our guys played hard, especially on the boards,” he said. “But … Sultan hit shots when they needed to.”
On a night when Coupeville honored the memory of the late Bennett Boyles, a CHS Class of 2022 hoops player who lost his battle with cancer at age 12, Sherman stressed to his team that the loss, while it hurts, should be viewed as a building block.
“We have a chance to come out tomorrow (Saturday) and help teach young players at our kids clinic, and then get ready for two more games next week,” Sherman said. “We continue to have something to play, and work, for, and we should be grateful for that.”
The Turks rode the three-ball to an early lead, dropping a trio of treys to claim a 14-12 lead after one quarter of play.
Hawthorne Wolfe and Sean Toomey-Stout led the CHS attack in the first frame, combining for nine points, but the Wolves didn’t claim the lead until the second quarter.
Koa Davison, back on the floor for the first time since before winter break, had a spring back in his step and went airborne to spike a Sultan shot off the back wall to key the surge.
With the Wolf faithful roused by the blocked shot, CHS got back-to-back buckets in the paint from the hard-working Wells, then let Toomey-Stout go wild.
“The Torpedo” dropped eight points in the quarter, with all four buckets coming on steals, breakaways, and much majestic soaring through the air, as he dodged rivals and twisted them into pretzels.
Up 32-27 at the half, Coupeville played its best ball in the third quarter.
This time around, it was Jacobi Pilgrim who crushed the air out of the ball on a blocked shot, while Davison hit a sweet mini skyhook and Gavin Knoblich tickled the twines on a three-ball from the corner.
The hottest hand belonged to Wolfe, who arched a trey from the left side to open the quarter, then slashed hard to the hoop for two-point buckets three times.
His final shot, on which he charged up the middle, popped into the air, then flicked the ball off of his fingertips over the outstretched hands of a Turk, was a thing of beauty.
It let Coupeville boast a 48-39 lead headed to the final break, and seemed, in the moment, to be the dagger.
Unfortunately, the fourth awaited.
Wolfe finished with a team-high 14 points on the night, while Toomey-Stout sank 12, and Wells banked in six.
Pilgrim (5), Grove (5), Knoblich (5), Davison (3), and Murdy (2) also scored, with Jered Brown pushing the attack hard when running the point.
Two CHS players reached personal career scoring milestones in the loss, with Toomey-Stout joining the 200-point club and Knoblich earning entry to the 100-point club.
With 205 points and counting, Toomey-Stout joins Wolfe (316) and Grove (268) among active Coupeville boys players in the first group, while Knoblich sits with 104.
