VW Cougars rally past Coldwater 57-45

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

A big first half scoring run turned things around for Van Wert on Saturday.

After Coldwater’s Jace Wood drilled an early second quarter trey that gave the visitors a 19-12 lead, the Cougars flipped the script by scoring 17 unanswered points. Ethan Brown had six consecutive points during the run and Garett Gunter added a pair of baskets. A layup by Nate Jackson completed the run and gave Van Wert a 29-19 lead. The Cougars also switched to a zone defense during the run, which affected the Cavaliers.

The run helped propel Van Wert to a 57-45 victory.

“I thought were a little flat to start and part of that might have been a little bit of a hangover from Friday night (vs. Ottawa-Glandorf) as far as a highly emotional game, but I was pleased with how we responded in the second quarter,” Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. “We’ve been working on our zone and I think we took some things away from Coldwater.”

“We challenged the guys at the end of the first quarter and told them we’re better than that,” Laudick added.

Leading 31-21 at halftime, the Cougars opened the third quarter in strong fashion, with Jackson draining a triple and Aidan Pratt adding six straight points. Van Wert steadily pulled away and led 48-31 entering the fourth quarter.

Coldwater’s Kevin Fisher hit a pair of treys in the first quarter and Evan Harlamert drained one as well, helping the Cavaliers to a 16-12 lead.

Gunter picked up his second foul two minutes into the second quarter, prompting Laudick to turn to Nate Phillips for much of the period.

“I’m happy for Nate,” Laudick said. “He’s responded to a different role, a role that we think is going to propel us to where we want to be at the end of the season. We got a great effort from all 10 guys tonight and that’s what I like about us – I want us to be hard to scout.”

Gunter and Pratt each finished with 12 points, with two of Pratt’s points coming on a crowd-pleasing two-handed dunk. The Cougars finished 23-of-47 from the floor and 6-of-12 from the foul line. Van Wert enjoyed a 25-19 rebounding advantage.

Coldwater was led by Fisher, who scored 13 points. The Cavaliers were held to 15-of-46 shooting, but converted 7-of-9 free throws.

Van Wert will host Shawnee on Friday.

“Tournament seeding is coming up in a couple of weeks and we need to focus and get victories any way we can to put ourselves in position to get a good tournament draw,” Laudick. “We still need to focus one game at a time, so we’ll turn our attention to Shawnee.”

Box score

Van Wert 12 19 17 9 – 57
Coldwater 16 5 10 14 – 45

Van Wert: Ethan Brown 3-2-8; Carson Smith 1-1-4; Garett Gunter 6-0-12; Aidan Pratt 6-0-12; Nate Jackson 2-0-5; Nate Phillips 1-3-6; Luke Wessell 3-0-7; AJ Proffitt 1-0-3

JV: Coldwater 47-36