Due to recent struggles, when the Coupeville boys basketball team takes the lead, they don’t want to let go.
In fact they wanted to keep the lead so badly in Friday’s 66-63 loss to Cascade Christian, when they had a two-point advanage with 2:42 left in the third quarter, they simply held onto the ball for the final shot.
An occassional pass outside the three-point line was all the offense Coupeville used as the third-quarter ran out. With the Cougars sitting in a zone, they seemed to be content to not apply any pressure.
“They switched to zone, so we said come out and play,” head coach Randy King said. “It was a shock to some fans and it was a shock to my kids who were pretty nervous out there.”
With three seconds left in the third, senior Brad Sherman hoisted up a three-pointer that missed wide left and the Wolves took their 44-42 lead into the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately for Coupeville they could not maintain the lead, despite going up by seven points, 51-44 with 5:00 left in the game.
It took less than a minute as Cascade Christian went on a scoring barrage, taking a 52-51 lead with just over four minutes remaining. The game went back and forth, with both teams trading the lead in the final minutes.
With only 5.4 seconds remaining on the clock and trailing, 66-63, Coupeville needed to move the ball the distance of the court and hit a three pointer to tie the game.
Senior Casey Clark got a good look at the basket, but his final effort went wide left, resulting in the third straight loss for the Wolves.
“It’s a lot like playing chess, but we’re getting better,” King said.
Senior Brad Sherman scored a game-high 27 points including four three-pointers for the Wolves. Clark had 17 and senior Brian Fakkema added 16 for Coupeville. The two combined for four three-pointers.
On Saturday the Wolves played the second game of their back-to-back contests, losing 81-57 to Cedar Park Christian.
Sherman had 23 for Coupeville, but the four players who reached double figures for Cedar Park cancelled his effort out.
With the loss Coupeville dropped to 1-6 on the season, but hope still remains with league play yet to begin.
“Our team has started out looking like they can compete now with the teams in our league,” King said.
Coupeville will welcome league play with open arms as non-league play hasn’t been very kind. The Wolves, who start league play at the beginning of January, have faced a brutal schedule of non-league opponents.
“We’ve had a pretty tough pre-season schedule,” KIng said. “We haven’t played a lot of patsies.”
The Wolves’ next game is at 5:30 p.m., Dec. 28 at home against Darrington.
Cascade C.—20 10 12 24—66
Coupeville— 20 14 10 19—63
Scoring—CV: Sherman 27, Clark 17, Fakkema 16, Bagby 2, Fisher 1.
CC: Gossler 25, Je. Robinette 23, Ja. Robinette 10, Bratz 6, Steanes 2.
Cedar Park—19 23 27 12—81
Coupeville— 11 12 18 16—57
Scoring—CV: Sherman 23, Clark 11, Bagby 6, Fakkema 6, McDonald 4, Day 3, Jorgenson 2, Rojas 2.
CC: Norton 24, Odom 15, Larson 14, Dillow 10, Bettinger 9, Lee 5, Abass 2, Minton 2.
Record: Coupeville 1-6
