Cougars win regular season finale 44-39

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

On January 22, Van Wert was 1-9 (0-4 WBL) with the lone win coming over Bryan but the Cougars flourished after that and posted 10 wins in 11 games, including a 44-39 victory over Parkway in the regular season finale at the Cougar’s Den on Saturday afternoon.

“I’m real proud of our guys,” Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. “To say we’re 11-10 is unreal right now and kind of hard to fathom. It’ll eventually sink in but it’s just a testament to our guys and how competitive they are.”

“Frustrating loss as I thought we had nice looks early on and didn’t convert inside,” Parkway head coach Doug Hughes said. “Defensively we had way too many break downs especially on transition defense and communication and getting back on defense really hurt us in the first half. We cannot give a solid team like van Wert 6-8 points because of poor transition defense.”

The Cougars raced out to a 14-2 first quarter lead, including five consecutive points by Owen Treece, but the Panthers closed the gap to 14-7 at the end of the period.

Aidan Pratt, who finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds, scored six points in the second quarter and helped give Van Wert a 23-13 lead, but back-to-back triples by Parkway’s Caden Slusher and one by Dylan Hughes trimmed the deficit to 23-22. Treece drilled a trey of his own late in the period to give the Cougars a 26-22 halftime lead. Hughes scored seven of his 13 points in the second quarter.

“They have very capable guys and Dylan Hughes is a guy who it feels like has been playing high school basketball for 10 years,” Laudick quipped. “They’re well coached and I knew it would be a grind it out game, especially when they made a run to cut it to a couple of possessions.”

The third quarter featured five ties and four lead changes and behind 10 points by Gabe Schaaf, Parkway led 39-38 at the end of the period. Van Wert received a scare with just over a minute left in the third quarter when Treece went down and hobbled off to the locker room.

Parkway held the ball for much of quarter but didn’t score in the final stanza. Van Wert tied the game 39-39 on a Garett Gunter foul shot with 3:25 left, then Pratt put the Cougars ahead with a bucket and ensuing free throw with just under two minutes left. The final two points came on foul shots by Treece, who had returned earlier in the quarter.

“The kid is a competitor and I knew he would come running back out at some point,” Laudick said of Treece. “We managed to find ways to make plays to win it in the end.”

“I thought we had some late nice looks from three and didn’t hit them,” Hughes said.

The Panthers finished 15-of-41 from the floor, including 6-of-16 from three point range, while Van Wert was 18-of-47. The Cougars hit 6-of-10 foul shots while Parkway hit 3-of-5, and Van Wert won the rebounding battle 26-21.

Parkway (10-12) will host Ridgemont in the Division IV sectional semifinals at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night and Van Wert will travel to Defiance to face the Bulldogs for a Division II sectional championship at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Defiance won the regular season matchup 53-46.

Scoring summary

Van Wert 14 12 12 8 – 44
Parkway 7 15 17 0 – 39

Van Wert: Ethan Brown 3-0-6; Owen Treece 4-2-12; Garett Gunter 2-1-5; Trey Laudick 1-0-2; Ty Jackson 1-0-2; Aidan Pratt 5-3-12; Nate Jackson 1-0-2; Ethan Rupert 1-0-2

Jacob Rogers 1-0-3; Gabe Schaaf 4-1-10; Feister Smith 1-0-2; Dylan Hughes 5-2-13; Caden Slusher 4-0-11

JV: Van Wert 50-43