Blue collar Braves survive rough night at charity stripe

‘Twas a week past Christmas, and Coupeville came to Landy James Gym bearing gifts.

But the hosts were no longer in the holiday spirit. They refused all forms of generosity Friday night.

The Braves instead chose to win this latest non-league hoop matchup between the longtime rivals the old-fashioned way.

With hard work on the boards and at the defensive end of the floor.

La Conner could’ve wrapped up the triumph with ease, had the Braves enjoyed a better outing at the charity stripe.

The Braves settled, how-ever, for a gritty 46-36 decision that pushed their overall slate to 7-2 going into a Jan. 9 NW2B road test at Shoreline Christian.

La Conner prevailed, despite converting just nine of 27 free throws, missing all but two of 15 freebies in the fourth quarter alone.

The Braves were likewise cold from beyond the three-point arc, meshing only three of 22 trey attempts on the night.

“I think we’ll just have to chalk this one up to us not having our legs after being off a few days for the holidays,” veteran La Conner head coach Scott Novak said afterward. “Going in, we’d had games where we shot over 70 percent from the line and hit a lot of three-pointers.”

Not so on Friday.

La Conner relied on key defensive stops and strong bench play.

Wilson Crawford provided a spark with a team-high 10 points while reeling in six rebounds.

“Wilson had a really good game for us,” Novak said. “He came in and helped pick us up after we got off to a slow start.”

The Braves trailed 8-5 after a ragged first frame.

It would’ve been even worse, had sophomore Scott Lindeman not drained an early trey.

“Coupeville plays such a helter-skelter style,” Novak explained, “that I think it took us out of sync for awhile.”

Things got better in the second period.

La Conner went on a 17-6 run to take an eight-point lead at the break and never looked back.

“That was a stretch,” said Novak, “where we played pretty well and were able to get some separation.”

Meanwhile, with Coupeville still employing its frenetic pace, the fouls began piling up for the Wolves.

Problem was, other than Erick Reinstra and Zach Harris hitting consecutive foul shots in the third quarter, La Conner rarely converted at the line.

The Braves did much better, though, on the glass.

Reinstra pulled down seven rebounds, while Logan James reeled in a team-high 12 caroms, nearly half of which were offensive boards that gave La Conner much needed second shot opportunities.

“Logan and Erick were definitely tough on the boards,” Novak stressed.

La Conner’s depth eventually wore down Coupeville. Reserves Budda Luna, Riley Stewart, and Terrance Fornsby gave the Braves quality minutes, Novak said.

“We knew that this would be a tough game for us on several levels,” he added. “One of the things that I wrote on the board before the game was to not let this turn into basketball rugby.”

It did, but the Braves managed to control the scrum anyway.

In related notes:

• In addition to Linde-man, Taylor Ebersole and Crawford hit three-pointers for La Conner.

• Cameron Hansen was held to three points but impacted the game in other areas. He filled the stat sheet with a team-best four assists to go along with the same number of steals.

• Wiley Hesselgrave and Aaron Trumbull led Coupeville with 10 points apiece.