Cougars lose OT heartbreaker to Wauseon

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

LIMA – It was an uphill battle for Van Wert all night.

The fourth seeded Cougars fell behind early, led just once and forced overtime, only to fall to No. 7 seed Wauseon 56-53 in the Division II sectional finals at Lima Sr on Friday.

The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak and ended Van Wert’s season at 16-7. Wauseon improved to 14-9 and will face St. Marys Memorial in the district semifinals at Ohio Northern University on Wednesday.

Van Wert trailed 8-2 early in the first quarter and 18-13 at the end of the period. Jonas Tester scored seven of his game high 20 points in the opening stanza, while Aidan Pratt put in six of his 15 points in the period.

“We just didn’t make shots or get stops early on and it got us off to a slow start,” Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. “When you look at final score that slow start was the difference.”

Carson Smith drained a pair of treys in the second quarter but the Indians were able to expand the lead to 33-21 at halftime.

The Cougars scored the first seven points of the third quarter, including a pair of buckets by Ethan Brown and a triple by Luke Wessell to pull within five, 33-28 nearly halfway through the period and Garett Gunter’s layup with under a second left made it a 37-34 game entering the fourth quarter.

A basket by Maddix Crutchfield and a foul shot by Pratt tied the game 37-37 less than a minute into the final period. The Cougars took their first and only lead of the game, 47-45, on a free throw line jumper by Pratt with 2:25 left. However, the Indians responded with five straight points to take a 50-47 lead. A layup by Gunter with 15 seconds left made it 51-49, then Smith found a wide open Crutchfield, who scored off the glass as the buzzer sounded to force overtime.

“It was kind of how we drew it up but not exactly,” Laudick said.

Van Wert made just one basket in overtime and missed several opportunities. A trey attempt by Pratt near the end of the extra session glanced off the rim and to Wauseon.

“We work on pressure layups a lot and we had some that rimmed out,” Laudick said of the overtime period. “Credit Wauseon, they’re a solid basketball team, they’re well coached and they made one more play than us and it hurts. It just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to tonight.”

The game was the final one for four seniors – Brown, Nate Jackson, Trey Laudick and Ty Jackson.

“It’s little difficult to say goodbye to them and close that chapter but I can’t thank Nate, Ty, Ethan and Trey enough for their leadership, their willingness to change roles at times,” Laudick said. “They’re going to do great at the game of life.”

Box score

Wauseon 18 15 4 14 5 – 56
Van Wert 13 8 13 17 2 – 53

Wauseon: Jonas Tester 7-6-20; Carson Burt 1-0-2; Jude Armstrong 1-2-4; Tyson Rodgriguez 2-2-7; Krue Powers 2-0-5; Landon Hines 4-4-12; Matt Shaw 2-0-4

Van Wert: Ethan Brown 2-1-5; Carson Smtih 3-2-10; Garett Gunter 5-1-12; Aidan Pratt 6-3-15; Maddix Crutchfield 4-0-8; Luke Wessell 1-0-3