O-G rallies in second half to beat Cougs

DAVE MOSIER/independent sports

It looked like the Van Wert Cougars had a firm handle on their Western Buckeye League opener against Ottawa-Glandorf on Friday, with a 12-point lead at halftime, but they unfortunately lost that handle as the Titans turned the tables on Van Wert in the second half, outscoring the Cougars 43-18 to win by 13 points, 63-50.

The Cougars led by nine points, 15-6, at the end of the first quarter, as O-G had trouble finding the basket in the stanza, while going up by 12, 32-20, at the half.

The Titans erased Van Wert’s lead in one quarter, outscoring the Cougars 23-11 in the third quarter to tie the game at 43-all heading into the final stanza.

Ottawa-Glandorf then hit its free throws — and everything else — down the stretch in a 20-7 scoring performance that gave the Titans the 13-point victory.

Titan Noah Bramlage led all scorers with 25 points, including 17 of 18 at the line, while Jordan Verhoff had 12 points and Zach Kuhlman added 10 points for O-G.

Connor Holliday did most of the scoring for Van Wert, with 22 points, including 9 of 10 from the free-throw line. Colin Smith added 9 points for the Cougars.

Van Wert was 13 of 29 from two-point range (44.8 percent), but hit only 2 of 12 three-point attempts (16.7 percent) for a total field goal percentage of 36.6 percent) 15 of 41). The Cougars were 18 of 24 at the free-throw line (75 percent).

Ottawa-Glandorf made 16 of 28 two-point attempts (57.1 percent), but was also cold from three-point range, hitting just one of 12 attempts (8.3 percent), for a total field goal percentage of 42.5 percent (17 of 40). The Titans were 28 of 32 from the line (87.5 percent).

Van Wert had the edge in rebounding, 29-23, while each team had 11 turnovers in the game.

The Cougars are now 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the WBL, while O-G is 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference.

Van Wert’s junior varsity team also lost, 35-30. Dylan Lautzenheiser was the Cougar JVs’ top scorer with 8 points.