The Van Wert County Courthouse

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

3-pointers boost Van Wert past Celina

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

CELINA — In the first two games of the season combined, Van Wert hit a total of six three pointers but Friday night, the Cougars knocked down 10 triples on the way to a 55-39 win at Celina in the Western Buckeye League opener for both teams.

Van Wert’s Carson Smith (5) puts up one of his three treys against Celina. Smith went on to finish with 13 points. Bob Barnes/Van Wert independent

Ethan Brown hit an early triple, then back-to-back treys by Carson Smith gave Van Wert a 15-4 lead with 1:35 left in the opening quarter. A buzzer beating layup by Nate Phillips put the Cougars ahead 17-6 at the end of the period.

“Confidence wise it was huge,” Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. “As we start to get our basketball legs under us and our conditioning level up and to knock down shots early is big for us. We didn’t do that last week and tonight it kind of snowballed on us.”

Smith added another three pointer in the second quarter and Nate Jackson converted one to extend the lead to 29-10, a score that stood at halftime.

“The guys really bought into some new things that we’re trying to do as far as footwork and how we’re doing things early on in the season,” Laudick said of the defensive effort. “For us to be successful early we have to hang our hat on the defensive end. To hold any WBL team to 10 points in a half, I’m just tickled.”

AJ Proffitt drained a pair of third quarter triples and Aidan Pratt added six points and Van Wert led by as many as 25 in the period. The Bulldogs outscored the Cougars 15-8 in the fourth quarter.

“We have some things we can work on but I’m real pleased with all 11 of our guys tonight,” Laudick said.

Pratt finished with 17 points, while Smith added 13 and Brown 10. Josh Rasaweher led Celina with 12 points.

Van Wert finished 10-of-18 from three point range and 22-of-43 overall, compared to 18-of-44 for Celina. The Bulldogs (1-2, 0-1 WBL) had a 22-20 rebounding advantage but also had more turnovers, 14-11.
Van Wert (2-1, 1-0 WBL) will play at Kalida tonight.

“They’re going to try to grind it out offensively and make us defend them for a long time,” Laudick said of the Wildcats. “They’re going to make us work for all of our shots but hopefully we can shoot like we did tonight.”

Scoring summary

Celina 6 4 14 15 – 39
Van Wert 17 12 18 8 – 55

Celina: Braylon Gabes 2-0-4; Caleb Gabes 2-0-5; Connor Allstaetter 1-0-2; Jacob Ray 1-0-2; Brian Feister 1-0-2; Carter Altstaetter 1-0-2; Quinn Andrew 3-0-8; Josh Rasawehr 6-0-2

Van Wert: Carson Smith 5-0-13; Ethan Brown 4-0-10; Aidan Pratt 6-1-17; Nate Jackson 1-0-3; Maddix Crutchfield 1-0-2; Nate Phillips 1-0-2; Luke Wessell 1-0-2; AJ Proffitt 2-0-6

JV: Van Wert 24-22

POSTED: 12/11/21 at 12:50 am. FILED UNDER: Sports