Wolves clipped by Falcons

A victory over South Whidbey Friday night would have crowned the Coupeville High School boys basketball team the unofficial 2007/08 Whidbey Island champions.

After losing 50-42 to South Whidbey in the opening Cascade League game of the season Dec. 13, the Wolves rebounded to defeat Oak Harbor 63-60 Dec. 15.

A victory at home against the Falcons would have meant a 2-1 record against Whidbey Island teams, but the Wolf Pack couldn’t quite get over the hump and dropped a 51-46 decision to South Whidbey in a hard-fought game.

Coupeville coach Randy King said South Whidbey has a strong team and played a good game against the Wolves.

“My hat is off to them, they played a hard game against us,” King said. “Our guys did too, we just couldn’t quite get it done.”

The game was a close one right from the opening tip off and neither team held more than a four-point lead until late in the contest.

Three-point shots played a key role and the two teams combined for 11 treys in the game.

The Wolves committed eight turnovers in the first half, not a great number, but each one of them seemed to allow South Whidbey to put points on the board.

Coupeville held a 9-6 lead in the first quarter until Eric Stallman canned a 3-pointer for the Falcons to tie the score 9-9 after the first eight minutes of action.

In the second period, free throw shooting by Coupeville’s Brian Miller kept the Wolves in the game.

The 6-foot, 7-inch senior was 6-for-10 from the charity stripe and combined with five points, including one from long range, from Kramer O’Keefe, the Wolves were down by just a single point, 23-22, at halftime.

“We shot a lot better against them this time than we did the last time we played,” O’Keefe said. “It just comes down to those little mistakes. Early in the game we had some turnovers and that cost us late.”

O’Keefe scored a game-high 17 points.

South Whidbey retained its one point lead heading into the fourth quarter after both teams put up 12 points in the third period, and then outscored the Wolves 16-12 in the fourth quarter to put the game in the book.

Miller scored 13 points for Coupeville and Alex Evans had eight.

C.J. Baker scored 12 points and teammate Parker Barnett had 11 points to pace the Falcons.

“Overall, it was a pretty good game,” King said. “We got some great looks at the basket, but just couldn’t get our shots to go down. We just couldn’t get over that hump at the end.”

Coupeville is now 3-5 in league games and 8-8 overall. The Falcons are in third place in the league at 5-3 and 9-5 overall.

South Whidbey 51, Coupeville 46

South Whidbey 9 14 12 16 — 51

Coupeville 9 13 12 12 — 46

South Whidbey (51) — C.J. Baker 4 2-2 12, Parker Barnett 4 3-5 11, Chris Carey 1 2-3 4, Blake Blakey 2 4-4 8, Eric Stallman 1 2-4 5, Jeff Brasko 2 2-2 7, Scott Stallman 0 1-2 1, Adam Hosmer 1 1-2 3, Adrian Cortes 0 0-0 0. Totals — ­ 14 17-24 51.

Coupeville (46) — Kramer O’Keefe 7 0-2 17, Brian Miller 3 7-12 13, Zepher Loesch 2 0-0 6, Alex Evans 3 0-1 8, James Smith 1 0-0 2, Cody Peters 0 0-0 0, Geoff Wacker 0 0-0 0. Totals — 16 7-15 46.

Three-point goals — South Whidbey 4 (Baker 2, E. Stallman, Brasko); Coupeville 7 (O’Keefe 3, Evans 2, Loesch 2). Turnovers — South Whidbey 8, Coupeville 10. Total fouls — South Whidbey 16, Coupeville 18. Fouled out — none.

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