Hayden Maynes and CMS boys’ basketball got off to an outstanding start Tuesday afternoon. (Lara Maynes photo)
The hardwood is open for business once again.
On a dank, dark, drizzly Tuesday afternoon, the Coupeville Middle School boys’ basketball squads went inside and kicked off a new season of Cow Town hoops by clashing with visiting Sultan.
And the Wolves did so with a major bang, sweeping three games from the Turks while getting 25 different players into the scoring column on opening day.
How things played out:
Level 1:
The most competitive rumble of the afternoon, and the only one in which Sultan led for a brief second or two.
Down 6-3 early, Coupeville’s top team stormed right back to snatch the lead away and never gave it back, holding off a late Turks rally to win 40-29.
Nico Strong racked up the first points of the new season on a three-ball from the right side, but it was solid work on the boards and in the paint which fueled the victory.
CMS used a 9-1 run, fueled by five points from rampaging big man Xander Flowers, to seize the advantage at 12-7 headed to the first break.
Enjoying what he was doing, which was teaming up with Gracen Joiner to ruthlessly clean the boards, Xander Flowers pumped in the first eight points in the second quarter to push the Wolves ahead 20-7.
While Sultan chipped away at the lead, Coupeville never broke.
A running layup from Joiner, off a dish from Xander Flowers, was big, while a second three-ball off the fingertips of Strong was truly deadly.
Sultan knocked down back-to-back buckets to open the final frame, cutting its deficit to 29-26, but the Wolves had an immediate answer.
Brady Sherman made a pinpoint pass to set up Abel O’Neil for a sweet lil’ jumper on the move, before Colton Ashby drilled out the bottom of the net on a runner in the paint.
In between those buckets, it was Dennis Rodman tribute time, as Xander Flowers, Joiner, and Braxten Ratcliff all converted baskets off of offensive rebounds.
As sizzling as the offense was, the defense was twice as nice, with Joiner soundly rejecting a Sultan shot into the stands, while Brayden Grinstead sacrificed his knees for the cause, skidding across the floor to break up a pass.
Xander Flowers paced the Wolves with 15 points, while Joiner (9), Strong (7), Ratcliff (4), Ashby (2), O’Neil (2), and Sherman (1) also scored, and Tymber Hubble, Grinstead, and Logan Flowers all saw floor time.
Level 2:
One-sided all the way, as Coupeville ran away with a lopsided 50-30 win with nine different guys scoring.
Mica McCloskey, who had the hot hand all game, opened things with a smooth jumper, launching the Wolves on a 14-0 tear and the beatdown was on.
Up 17-3 after one quarter of play, the Wolves stretched things out to 25-3 midway through the second frame, gave a few points back, then slammed the door shut.
Hayden Maynes popped a three-ball from the top, right after his dad and big sis left the gym, to send Coupeville into the halftime locker room up 29-11, but the highlights weren’t done.
Coupeville got creative in the second half, with Logan Flowers banging home a three-ball after Burke Winger snatched a rebound and smartly kicked the ball out to the open shooter.
Then McCloskey struck again, streaking down court and hauling in a well-chucked outlet pass from Maynes for a breakaway layup, followed by Dreyke Mendiola swishing a long trey right in the face of the defense.
The buckets kept coming, with team #2 racking up the most points of the day, and one late basket was especially sweet, with the hard-working Winger being rewarded.
The kind of role player every coach loves, as he hits the glass, gets intense on defense, and hustles every step of the way, Winger often passes up his own shots in favor of feeding his teammates.
But this time, he stopped and popped, rippling the nets on a jumper that dropped through the net with a satisfying splash.
Coupeville’s offense was balanced across the board, with McCloskey leading the way with a game-high 15 points.
Flowers (9), Liam Stoner (7), Mendiola (7), Maynes (5), Winger (2), Luke Blas (2), LJ Schultz (2), and Henry Tierney (1) also rattled the rim, with Adrian Mitchell playing strongly on defense.
Level 3:
Another romp, as the young Wolves closed things with a wire-to-wire 42-10 win in a game which finished with a running clock.
Coupeville jumped out to a 12-0 lead, with young gun Cruz Fasolo rolling to the hoop for an early bucket in the same way his late grandfather, Bob “Big-Time” Fasolo, used to aggressively take the ball to the hole during open gyms.
The family tradition lives.
And not just the Fasolo family, as Holden O’Neil also made a solid CMS debut, wheeling and dealing like mom Kassie (Lawson) O’Neil did back in the day, rainin’ down buckets on fools and takin’ names.
“Killer Kassie” is working the sidelines as a CMS hoops coach this season, along with fellow Wolf alums Alex Evans, Hawthorne Wolfe, and Jaylen Nitta, and the “old school” crew has taught the “next gen” hoopsters well.
Nine players scored in this game as well, but a shout-out to one who didn’t take a shot but still had a huge impact.
Leonidas Mitchell was relentless under the glass, snatching nearly every rebound in sight during his time on the floor, then feeding his teammates time and again.
Dude is one to watch if you appreciate the finer points of the game, is what I’m saying.
Shutting down Sultan at every turn, with a pack of pesky ballhawks driving a few Turks slightly bonkers, the Wolves bolted out to a 12-2 lead after one quarter, stretched things to 18-4 by the half, then made it 34-6 heading into the final frame.
Logan Dees, who gets extra credit for rocking the #33 uniform made forever famous by Larry Bird, hit a pretty, pretty fallaway jumper at one point, while Jonah Dunham converted back-to-back buckets off of offensive rebounds.
And then there was Holden O’Neil, making mom’s heart likely soar (and dad’s probably proud, too), ripping off three coast-to-coast runs for buckets in the second half, each one a dagger right into the heart of the defense.
O’Neil and Dees finished with a game-high eight points apiece, with Rockford Reyes (4), Jon Driscoll (4), John Davis (4), Hayden Cooper (4), Evan Sierra (4), Dunham (4), and Fasolo (2) all chipping to the cause.
Silas Rudat, Mitchell, Ezra Tercero, Gabe Reed, Lincoln Folkestad, and Antonio Echeverria Bryant rounded out the crew.
