“It was bad.”

So said coach Anthony Smith in regard to the shooting percentage of his Coupeville High School boys basketball team in its 52-16 loss to visiting Sultan Tuesday, Dec. 18.

When discussing the game, Smith did not have the official statistics available and said, “We were 4-for-20 something, or maybe 4-for-thirty something.”

What ever the total, it wasn’t nearly good enough as the Wolves failed to score more than six points in a quarter.

After a decent start — the two teams were tied at six after the first quarter — things started to turn for the worse or the Wolves as the game progressed.

Smith said although his club scored only four points in the second quarter, it played well and would have gone into the locker room down by only eight but a Turk drilled a three at the buzzer.

Down 21-10 at the break, the Wolves fell behind 36-14 heading into the fourth quarter.

Smith called the game “frustrating,” and added, “You have to take little victories.”

He cited the final quarter of the previous game with South Whidbey and the first two against Sultan as positives: “We have to build on that and believe.”

The Wolves played good half-court defense against the Turks, but the offense, through the lack of execution and off-mark shots, couldn’t keep pace, Smith said. He added that the Wolves still struggle in transition defense.

Aaron Trumbull and Nick Streubel scored six points for Coupeville, and Caleb Valko had four.

Smith said, “We will get after it. It would be nice to get a win for the holidays.”

Coupeville (0-4, 0-6) plays at Friday Harbor at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 20, and at home with Orcas Island at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.