Treece scores 30, Cougars beat Coldwater

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

COLDWATER — A strong start by Van Wert and 30 points by Owen Treece helped propel the Cougars to their second victory of the year, a 69-62 win over Coldwater on Saturday night.

Treece scored 13 of his points in the first quarter and Garett Gunter added six of his 10 and Van Wert raced out to an early 10-5 lead, then led 21-13 at the end of the period. The Cougars (2-9) trailed just once all game, 5-4 in the first quarter.

“Our message was to start the game strong and attack the basket and that’s what we did to start with,” Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. “Obviously it was good to get a couple of quick baskets to start and it was good to get Owen a couple of quick buckets after he struggled a little bit last night (vs. Shawnee). I thought we did a good job of getting off to a great start and that’s something we haven’t done a whole lot this year.”

In the second quarter, back-to-back treys by Ethan Brown and a bucket by Aidan Pratt extended Van Wert’s lead to 34-21, but the Cavaliers (7-8) hit three consecutive triple tries and closed the gap to seven, 37-30, at halftime.

Jesse Meyer and Kevin Fisher each scored a basket to open the third quarter and Coldwater trailed by just three, 37-34, before Aidan Pratt scored and Nate Jackson canned a trey to push the lead back to eight. Late in the quarter Coldwater started to get hot, but Treece drained a trey at the buzzer to give the Cougars a 54-43 lead entering the final period.

“That was huge,” Laudick stated. “Anytime you can have the momentum going into the fourth quarter is huge.”

Despite five trey in the fourth quarter by Coldwater, including two each by Carson Muhlenkamp and Myles Blasingame, Van Wert was able to maintain a double digit lead for much of the fourth quarter. The Cougars also converted 7-of-9 free throws in the final period and finished 13-of-19 from the line.

Blasingame led Coldwater with 17 points, while Muhlenkamp and Fisher each finished with 11.

Along with Treece and Gunter, two other Cougars finished in double figures. Ethan Brown had 13 points and Aidan Pratt tallied 11 points and six rebounds. Gunter also finished with five rebounds and four assists, leading to praise from Laudick.

“We ask a lot from our point guards and in a way we want them to be perfect,” Laudick said. “Garett put together a really good game tonight, he went to the free throw line and shot with confidence, he made some really good decisions with the basketball tonight and he made a couple of tough shots.”

After playing eight of their first 11 games on the road, the Cougars will play eight of the remaining ten regular season games at home, starting with Kenton on Friday and Lima Central Catholic on Saturday.

“Our guys are excited about that,” Laudick said. “Not that we don’t like getting on the bus but it feels like we’ve been on the bus forever and we’re excited to be at home in front of our fans.”

Scoring summary

Coldwater 13 17 13 15 – 62
Van Wert 21 16 17 19 – 69

Coldwater: Carson Muhlenkamp 3-2-11; Myles Blasingame 5-4-17; Ethan Post 3-0-9; Jesse Meyer 3-0-6; Kevin Fisher 4-0-11; Tyler Schwieterman 4-0-8

Van Wert: Ethan Brown 5-0-13; Owen Treece 11-4-30; Garett Gunter 2-6-10; Aidan Pratt 4-3-10; Connor Pratt 1-0-2

JV: Van Wert 60-51