Roughriders defeat Van Wert 54-39

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

The three-pronged attack of 6-8 freshman Austin Parks, 6-6 senior Ethan Steger and Van Wert transfer LeTrey Williams was too much for the Cougars, as St. Marys Memorial posted a 54-39 win on Friday night.

Steger finished 20 points and 11 rebounds, Williams scored 18 and Parks put in 12 points as the Roughriders improved to 8-2 (2-1 WBL).

“6-8, 6-6, I don’t care what high school team you are, that makes it really difficult to defend,” Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. “Obviously we know LeTrey and what he can do – he’s a lightning quick guard and there were some times transition-wise where we lost him. Going in that was one thing we knew we had to take away and unfortunately we didn’t.”

After trailing 28-17 early in the third quarter, Van Wert used a pair of free throws by Colin Place and two foul shots and a bucket by Owen Treece to close the gap to four, 28-24, but the Roughriders answered with a 13-0 run, including three baskets by Steger and five points by Williams to effectively put the game out of reach for good. When the period ended, St. Marys Memorial enjoyed a 43-28 lead.

“All the sudden it just seemed like a lid went on our bucket and went off theirs,” Laudick said. “It’s a game of runs, but we competed like crazy again.”

The Cougars were unable to get closer than 10 in the fourth quarter.

Owen Treece finished with 20 points, with 15 of those coming in the second half. Jake Hilleary added six points for Van Wert (2-7, 1-2 WBL).

Going with a starting lineup that included 6-5 senior Colin Place, Van Wert played some zone defense, but trailed 12-5 after one quarter and 26-17 at halftime.

“Colin’s earned the right to be in our starting lineup and we tried to reward him for his efforts, but at the same time we tried to put a bigger lineup out there on the floor to try to stop 6-8 and 6-6,” Laudick explained. “The zone is something that we’ve been working on a little bit and there were some things we did well with it. It slowed the game down a little bit, and we’ll look at the film and try to figure out how to make it better.”

“We’re not going to abandon our man-to-man defense but at the same time the zone gives us another option that people need to prepare for,” the coach added.”

Van Wert will host Marion Local tonight.

Scoring summary

Van Wert 5 12 11 11 – 39
St. Marys 12 14 17 11 – 54

Van Wert: Clayton Proffitt 1-1-3; Owen Treece 7-4-20; Tanner Barnhart 1-0-2; Nate Jackson 1-0-2; Colin Place 0-3-3; Ethan Brown 1-1-3; Jake Hilleary 3-0-6

St. Marys Memorial: LeTrey Williams 7-2-18; Jaden Davis 0-2-2; Max Mielke 1-0-2; Ethan Steger 8-3-20; Austin Parks 5-2-12

JV: Van Wert 50-45