The Van Wert County Courthouse

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

Cougars jump out early, beat Lincolnview

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Van Wert scored early and often and never looked back during Saturday’s 61-26 win over Lincolnview.

When the dust settled, 10 different players scored for the Cougars.

Carson Smith puts up a shot for two of his 11 points Lincolnview. Bob Barnes/Van Wert independent

“I’m just pleased with our guys and with getting contributions from some other people tonight,” Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. “We’re kind of a Swiss army knife in a way.”

Ethan Brown and Aidan Pratt combined for 13 points in the first quarter and the Cougars and Van Wert closed the period with 12 unanswered points to take a 20-6 lead. Ethan Crow accounted for all six of Lincolnview’s first quarter points.

Back-to-back buckets by Carson Smith late in the second quarter gave Van Wert a 31-11 advantage and the Cougars went on to lead 34-13 at halftime. The advantage was extended to 47-19 after three quarters.

“We have to find ways to be better at both ends of the floor, Lincolnview head coach Brett Hammons said. “We didn’t shoot it very well, we have to do a better job of rotating on defense, staying in front of the basketball, taking charges and rebounding.”

“On the offensive end we broke the press and I thought we did a good job with that,” Hammons continued. “When we got into the half court we got shots, we just missed and in order to beat teams like this, making shots is part of it. We need to find a way to put the ball in the basket.”

Pratt led all scorers with 17 points while Smith added 11 points, all in the first half. Crow led the Lancers with 11.

“I thought Carson Smith had a really good night,” Laudick said. “He was able to knock down some shots and get us really going. I know he was a little frustrated after Monday’s loss (Columbus Grove) and he had two really good practices and I’m glad he was rewarded for that.”

“I thought he (Crow) played well at both ends, Hammons said. “On the defensive end I thought he guarded well and I thought he rebounded for us. He made some nice moves on the block and he hustled for us tonight and gave us some good minutes.”

Both teams are back in action next weekend. Lincolnview will host Spencerville on Friday then will travel to Miller City on Saturday. Van Wert will head to Wapakoneta on Friday then will host Marion Local the following night.

“We going to take a couple days to rest but we know come Monday we have some work to do, some toughness stuff that we need to work on,” Laudick said. “Our focus will be Wapak but we know there’s a pretty difficult challenge on Saturday as well.”

Scoring summary

Van Wert 20 14 13 14 – 61
Lincolnview 6 7 6 7 – 26

Van Wert: Ethan Brown 3-1-7; Carson Smith 4-0-11; Garett Gunter 1-0-2; Trey Leroux 1-0-2; Ty Jackson 2-1-5; Aidan Pratt 7-2-17; Nate Jackson 1-0-2; Maddix Crutchfield 2-0-4; Luke Wessell 3-0-8; AJ Proffitt 1-0-3

Lincolnview: Garrett Richardson 2-0-4; Cal Evans 2-0-5; Landon Price 1-0-2; Austin Bockrath 1-0-2; Cole Binkley 1-0-2; Ethan Crow 5-1-11

POSTED: 12/30/21 at 11:49 pm. FILED UNDER: Sports