The Vashon High School boys’ basketball team took a long trip north to the Whidbey Island village of Coupeville on Saturday, Dec. 17, for an interleague game and came away with a victory over the Coupeville Wolves.
Coupeville plays in the Olympic League, while Vashon is a strong fixture in the Nisqually League. With six games behind them, but only one victory for the year, the Wolves had a large measure of concern about a game against a second Nisqually League opponent in as many nights. The previous night they lost to Bellevue Christian, 66-38.
This class 1A game was never really in doubt, but the Pirates allowed the Wolves to save some face with a 75-62 drubbing, improving the VHS record to 2-1.
Early in the first quarter, the Pirates missed a number of mid-range shots that allowed Coupeville to stay close, until senior Caspar Forest took a pass from fellow senior Langston Dziko and hit a turnaround jump shot from the top of the key to start his scoring spree. He followed that with five more quick points, and Vashon sped to a 19-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
With VHS only getting scoring from Forest, sophomore Jacob Chavez was singled out to shoot three-point baskets. He came through with four high, arcing swishes in the first half for 12 of his 18 points. Tommy Delargy, also a talented sophomore, kept Coupeville off-balance with bursts of speed and artful slashes to the hoop for baskets that stopped the energy of the opponents as they were trying to stay in the game. Colin Pottinger, yet another sophomore, and perhaps the team’s tallest player at 6 feet 3 inches, grabbed a number of rebounds and made a much-needed put-back basket to add to the scoring from the bench early in the second quarter.
For Coupeville, junior guard Hunter Smith gave the Vashon defense fits. Throughout the game, he either penetrated deep to the hoop or stopped suddenly and lifted high in the air to take jump shots that went down enough times to keep the Wolves in the game. Virtually every time VHS started to pull away in the first half, Smith answered with an easy shot.
VHS coach Andy Sears has a fairly young Vashon team that looks to be working to find the open player under the basket and effectively get the ball into his hands. However, the long three-point shot is always available as was demonstrated Saturday. During this first half, two VHS players were hitting them, and at the end of it, the VHS lead was 40-24.
After halftime, the third quarter began with a short run by Coupeville followed by senior guard Rhys Jennings hitting two buckets and junior Jahmiah Hoogen throwing in five points from longer range shooting. This scoring allowed the visitors to take the lead to 20 points, before a defensive breakdown and a series of fast-
break turnovers narrowed the margin again.
Down the stretch in the fourth quarter, Vashon maintained a constant lead in double figures with free
throws from Noah Edmonds and both offensive and defensive rebounding from Ethan Danielsen. The
high scorer for VHS was Caspar Forest with 26 points, followed by Chavez 18, Edmonds 8 and Hoogen,
Delargy, Jennings and Danielsen with 5.
The previous two Pirate games resulted in a loss to Fife, 62-58, followed by a win against Tenino 77-10.
The Pirates played Sultan at home on Tuesday, after press time and Friday travel to Port Townsend.
— Daniel Briggs is the father of a Pirate basketball player.
