After losing 58-39 at Klahowya in Silverdale Friday, Jan. 30, the Coupeville High School boys basketball team must win at Port Townsend at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3., if it wishes to keep its postseason hopes intact.
A loss at Port Townsend (2-4, 2-14) would put the Wolves (1-5, 5-11) two games behind the Redhawks with two games remaining in the fight for third place and the final playoff berth. The loss would also give Port Townsend the tie-breaker over Coupeville, thus eliminating the Wolves from the district tournament race.
A Coupeville win, however, will not guarantee the Wolves a postseason berth, but it would gain the tie-breaker advantage over the Redhawks.
The team’s split their two earlier meetings this winter.
Port Townsend defeated visiting Coupeville 60-51 Jan. 6, and the Wolves won at home 53-49 Jan. 23.
“I’m pretty optimistic we can still go,” Coupeville coach Anthony Smith said, although his club could be missing four players to injuries.
In the loss to Klahowya, Coupeville once again, suffered through one clunker of a quarter.
The Eagles, who led 17-15 after the first quarter and 29-23 after the second, limited the Wolves to only three third-period points while scoring 16 to pull away.
“A little bit of everything went wrong” in the third quarter, Smith said. “We were not making shots. We were just playing catch on the perimeter, and our offense is best when attacking and moving.”
Although the Wolves lost, they received “another stellar game” from Wiley Hesselgrave, Smith said. The junior guard pumped in 23 points.
Only three other Wolves scored. Aaron Curtin and Risen Johnson tallied six points each, and Aaron Trumbull, still hobbled by a bad ankle, added four.
Injured starter Joel Walstad and three others did not play.
Another bright spot, Smith said, was the defense, particularly in the second half, on the Eagles’ Ricky Holguin. Holguin burned the Wolves for 27 points in their first meeting and then scored 14 in the first half Friday. Coupeville held Holguin to only two points over the final two periods, Smith said.
