With 11 points Saturday, Hawthorne Wolfe becomes the first CHS hoops player to pass 100 for the season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Free throws killed them.
A huge disparity at the charity stripe was too much to overcome for the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball team Saturday in Seattle.
While the Wolves drilled all four of their freebies, The Bush School went 18-24, all in the second half, and knocked off their visitors 53-40.
The non-conference loss, coming in Coupeville’s second game in less than 24 hours, drops it to 2-4 on the season.
If the lack of love on foul calls was due to home town refs (just a thought, I wasn’t there), things will hopefully get better for CHS next week, as the Wolves play three straight in Cow Town.
Coupeville hosts Chimacum Tuesday, Port Townsend Thursday, and Nooksack Valley Saturday, then heads off to winter break.
Facing off with The Bush School, the Wolves were whistled for 16 fouls, with two players picking up four apiece.
The host Blazers were only whacked by the refs eight times, with no one on their roster picking up more than two personal fouls.
Maybe the Wolves were just too handsy, or maybe the refs were missing their seeing-eye dogs.
Like I said, I wasn’t there.
But the free throws negated Coupeville’s edge from behind the three-point arc, erased a Wolf halftime lead, and provided the final margin.
The Wolves lost by 13 — the first time this season they have been beat by double digits — and made 14 less free throws than their private school foes.
In the early going, Coupeville rode the three-ball shooting skills of senior Mason Grove and held The Bush School at bay.
Grove splashed down four first-half treys, with three of them coming in the second quarter, as the Wolves turned a razor-thin 5-4 edge after one quarter into a 18-14 bulge at the half.
But while Coupeville added another four three-balls after the break, with sophomore Hawthorne Wolfe netting three, and Grove hitting his fifth, The Bush School started to take control.
The Blazers hit 3-5 at the free throw line in the third quarter, pulling ahead 34-29 headed into the final frame, then went (slowly) bonkers down the stretch, swishing 15-19 at the stripe in the fourth.
Grove paced Coupeville with 15 points, while Wolfe dropped in 11, all in the second half.
That was most of the offense, however, with Sean Toomey-Stout, Ulrik Wells, and Jacobi Pilgrim each adding four, while Jean Lund-Olsen finished with two points.
Jered Brown, Tucker Hall, and Gavin Knoblich all saw floor time for the Wolves, while inside scoring threat Koa Davison sat out after rolling his ankle in Friday’s game.
Two Coupeville players hit personal milestones in the loss.
With his 11 points, Wolfe becomes the first CHS player, boy or girl, to cross the 100-point barrier this season.
After leading the team with 158 as a freshman, he tops the squad again, this time with 103 across the first six games, which is a hair over 17 a night.
With his first of two buckets on the night, Wells hit 100 points for his career.
He’s the fifth active CHS boys player to reach that mark, following Wolfe (261), Grove (239), Toomey-Stout (168), and Brown (125), and the 184th all-time across 103 seasons.
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