The smallest public school on Whidbey Island is the biggest when it comes to boys basketball.

Three days after defeating 2A South Whidbey, the 1A Coupeville Wolves knocked off their 4A big brothers from the north end of the island, Oak Harbor, 66-61 Monday, Dec. 21, in Coupeville.

The win raised the Wolves’ record to 5-1, while the Wildcats dropped their seventh straight game after a season-opening win at Sedro-Woolley.

To earn the win, Coupeville had to overcome a sterling effort from Oak Harbor’s Mike Washington Jr. The 6-3 sophomore, who some recruiting experts tab as the best 10th-grade shooting guard in the state, rang up 37 points, including the Wildcats’ final 22 and all 18 in the fourth quarter.

While Washington was carrying Oak Harbor, Coupeville was getting offensive help from several sources.

Coupeville coach Randy King said, “We have a lot of weapons, they had only one. We scattered it around a little bit.”

Of King’s weapons, none was bigger than Hunter Hammer. The 6-5 junior post dominated the middle with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Once Oak Harbor lost its most physical post presence Colby Anter just 90 seconds into the game with a sprained ankle, the Wildcats had no answer for Hammer. He scored several hoops off offensive put backs and was often the recipient of sharp passes from a variety of unselfish teammates.

Oak Harbor’s Rashaad Smith’s two points were the only ones scored by the Wildcats’ front line.

Coupeville also out rebounded Oak Harbor 31-18. Tim Walstad grabbed seven and Jason Bagby six.

Bagby also aided Hammer on the offensive end with 16 points. And while Anter sat with an injury, Coupeville had its own personnel issues. Starting point guard JD Wilcox sat almost two quarters because of foul trouble but still chipped in with 10 points.

Washington carried the Wildcats at the end, but his running mates at guard played a big role in the first quarter.

Coupeville jumped to a 6-0 lead and led the entire quarter until Denzel Harden hit a buzzer beater from the corner to put Oak Harbor up 16-14. Jay Stout hit two 3-points and Ryan Fakkema a hoop to keep the ‘Cats in it early. Stout finished the game with 12 points and Harden eight.

When Washington hit the first basket of the second quarter, the Wildcats took what would end up being their largest lead of the game, 18-14.

The game swayed back and forth until Coupeville ended the half the way it started, with a 6-0 run, on buckets by Hammer, Bagby and Tyler King to go into the locker room up 34-31.

Coupeville never relinquished the lead in the second half and upped its advantage to seven, 46-39, on a Bagby free throw with 2:17 left in the third quarter. From that point, no Wildcat other than Washington scored.

When Bagby hit a three at the end of the quarter, Coupeville had the game’s biggest lead, 51-43.

The lead was again seven, 57-50, when Ian Smith hit a pair of free throws with about four minutes left.

Oak Harbor twice trimmed the lead to two, the last (61-59) with just over a minute to play.

From that point Oak Harbor began fouling and Coupeville hit four of six to hold off the Wildcats. In all, the Wolves made 10 of 14 fouls shots. Oak Harbor hurt their cause by hitting only nine of 17.

The final blow for Oak Harbor came when after rebounding a Coupeville free throw miss with 33 seconds left and down 63-59, the Wildcats immediately turned the ball over.

Tyler King finished with six points, Chad Brookhouse four, Walstad four and Smith two to round out the Coupeville scoring.

Coach King said, “A lot of kids made contributions.”

As a stream of fans walked by and congratulated the winning coach, he added that the win was a “big deal for the local people” because many of them work in Oak Harbor and have close ties with both communities.

Coupeville will get right back at it today, Dec. 22, when it hosts Friday Harbor at 2:30.

Oak Harbor has a break until Arlington comes to the Wildcat gym Tuesday, Jan. 5, for a 7:30 game.

Oak Harbor coach Mike Washington Sr. said, “Until we accept our roles, we are going to struggle.”