Wolves in must win game

The Coupeville Wolves were knocked off by the King’s Garden Knights Thursday night, sending them into a loser-out tournament contest on Saturday against Cascade Christian.

The Wolves’ perfect league record of 10-0 meant little in their opening game in the tri-district tournament at Mountlake Terrace Thursday. After a close start, King’s dominated to breeze to a 74-54 victory.

“We just gave up too many points,” said Wolves’ coach Randy King. As a number one seed in the tournament, the Wolves hadn’t played in a week, but coach King was making no excuses. “King’s took their defense to a different level,” he said. “They put it to us.”

The opening quarter gave the erroneous impression the game would be a classic duel. Thanks to the shooting of Wolf Brad Sherman, Coupeville enjoyed a 16-15 lead when the buzzer ended the first period.

Sherman accounted for 9 of the Wolves’ points with a trio of three-pointers in the opening period, but then the King’s defense stiffened.

In the second period, the Knights dominated 21-10, scoring almost at will from both inside and outside. “We had a tough time keeping them from scoring,” King said.

Coupeville regrouped to keep the second half closer but still the Knights edged further ahead until they had a 20-point advantage at game’s end.

Sherman led Coupeville’s scoring with 23 pooints while Chris Good added 14, Casey Clark 6, Jeff Hageman 6, Sean Callahan 4, and Jim Meek 1. King’s individual scoring was not immediately available.

The Wolves now must win today in the double-elimination tournament or their terrific season will end sadly, short of the trip to state they were shooting for.

Cascade Christian lost its tournament opener to Bellevue Christian, and entered the game against Coupeville with a 13-9 overall mark.

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