Season in Review: Van Wert Cougars

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

It’s been several days since the 2018-2019 basketball season came to a heartbreaking end for the Van Wert Cougars.

The team had No. 1 seed Shawnee on the ropes in the Division II district championship game at Ohio Northern University, but the Indians managed to pull out a 58-54 overtime win.

Even so, it shouldn’t detract from an enjoyable and entertaining season by Van Wert, which included a win over 2017-2018 Division IV state champion Marion Local and a 60-58 victory over Coldwater, a team that will play for a Division III regional championship.

After a 5-7 start, the Cougars (16-10, 6-3 WBL) won eight of their last ten regular season games, then defeated Bath, No. 2 seed Wauseon and No. 3 seed Defiance before falling to Shawnee. The win total was the highest since the 2010-2011 season, when the team finished 19-5.

“We knew it would be a little bit of a struggle to start,” Van Wert head coach Mark Bagley said. “We had some injuries and some weird things happen, but I never stopped believing in this team.”

“It was a matter of putting it all together and it was coming, but we had a few hiccups. We had the hiccup with Bryan (44-33 loss) where we weren’t full strength, but there are no excuses, we didn’t play very well on a Monday night.”

“The turning point was St. Henry – we went down and got demolished and our kids had resolve after that game that I hadn’t seen in the locker room. I was pretty confident going into the tournament draw the next day and I didn’t care what seed we got, I knew the team had a chance to play for a while.”

Bagley added that the postseason goal was to get to the fourth game, or the Division II regional semifinals at Bowling Green.

“Just because you work hard and think you deserve to win, it doesn’t always work out that way,” Bagley said. “Ultimately, we didn’t make the plays that were necessary (against Shawnee).”

The Cougars will lose four seniors – Nate Place (Second Team All-WBL), Blake Henry, Lawson Blackmore and Drew Bagley (First Team All-WBL) – a quartet that combined for 37 points and 19 rebounds per game. It’s a group that holds a special place in Bagley’s heart.

“I’ve known them forever,” Bagley explained. “They’ve been like second sons to me because I coached them at a young age and I’ve gotten to know them through being their principal in the middle school.”

“I know what great students they are,” the coach continued. “We’re talking about guys that are averaging over a 3.75 grade point average, so not only are they good basketball players, they’re great students as well and the most important part is they’re better people.”

The cupboard won’t be bare next season, as Owen Treece (10.4 ppg, Honorable Mention All-WBL) and LeTrey Williams (4.7 ppg) will be back, along with several others who say varsity time, including Tanner Barnhart, Clayton Proffitt and Jake Hilleary.

Even so, Bagley said there will be room for improvement.

“We have to get better skill wise” Bagley noted. “Our skill level is not good enough right now in terms of shooting the basketball and handling the basketball.”

“We have to get physically stronger, because the way the game is called now, the way the game is played, we need to be stronger. I think in a lot of other areas we have a lot of encouraging things coming back.”

The Cougars will celebrate the season with the program’s annual banquet, scheduled for 1 p.m. March 31, in the Lecture Hall at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center. The public is welcome to attend.