Cold 1st half leads to Cougar WBL loss

DAVE MOSIER/independent sports

One bad half was the story for Van Wert as the Cougars lost to Lima Bath 69-61 in a Western Buckeye League clash played in the Cougar’s Den on Friday.

The Wildcats took a 15-12 first-quarter lead and expanded their advantage to 8 points, 30-22, at the half. Van Wert played even with Bath in the second half, but couldn’t close the gap on the Wildcats.

The Cougars, who lost their first league game of the season, fall to 9-2 overall and 3-1 in the WBL, while Bath is 9-3 and also 3-1 in league play. Defiance is now the only unbeaten team in the WBL.

Poor two-point shooting in the first half doomed Van Wert, which made only 8 of 23 two-point attempts in the half. The Cougars were 11 of 19 in the second half, but the damage was done by then.

Van Wert made 19 of 42 two-point attempts in the game (45.2 percent) – one of the few times this year the Cougars haven’t shot better than 50 percent from in front of the arc. They were 3 of 6 from three-point range (50 percent) and made 14 of 17 free throw shots (82.4 percent). Bath hit 20 of 36 from two-point range (55.6 percent) and made 3 of 9 three-point attempts (33.3 percent). The Wildcats were 20 of 25 (80 percent) from the charity stripe.

Bath also had the edge in both rebounds and turnovers, bringing down 28 caroms to 23 for the Cougars and having 15 turnovers to 17 for Van Wert.

Van Wert was led by Reggie Phillips, who canned 17 points for the Cougars, including eight two-pointers and 1 of 2 from the line. Jake Myers, who had trouble getting his shots to fall in the first half, scored 16 points, including a trey, four two-pointers and a 6-for-6 performance at the free throw line. Both Joe Moonshower and AJ Smith added 8 points for Van Wert.

Bath had a very balanced offensive attack, led by Brad Davis’ 19 points. Logan Rockhold scored 12 points, while Cole Chambers, Taren Sullivan and Nate Heffner all had 9 points on the night. Colin Gossard scored 8 for the Wildcats.

A continuing bright spot for the Cougars is the play of its junior varsity team, which remained perfect on the year at 11-0 with a 44-35 victory over Bath. Matt Bidlack was Van Wert’s top scorer with 15 points.

The Cougars return to action tonight over traditional non-conference rival Bryan, and then travel to Kalida next Tuesday to play the Wildcats.