Van Wert races by Lincolnview 64-38

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

A massive second quarter scoring advantage by Van Wert carried the Cougars to a 64-38 victory over county rival Lincolnview Thursday night. The game was the second half of a girls-boys doubleheader for Human Trafficking Awareness Night.

Van Wert (5-1) led 14-8 after one quarter, then opened the second quarter with 16 unanswered points to make it 30-8. By halftime, the Cougars had outscored the Lancers 30-3 to take a 44-11 lead into the locker room. Carson Smith scored eight points in the second quarter and Aidan Pratt added nine, including a deep trey to beat the first half buzzer.

“It was a good news/bad news kind of thing,” Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. “The bad news is we had to challenge our guys at the end of the first quarter. As coaches we felt we weren’t playing at the level that we needed to play at but the good news is they were challenged and responded and in the second quarter just about everything went right for us.”

“We had a game plan coming in and give Van Wert credit, they made it difficult to do what we wanted to do,” Lincolnview head coach Brett Hammons said. “I think we made too many mistakes early in the game. They’re a talented team and were able to finish around the basket.”

A pair of Luke Wessell foul shots early in the third quarter put the game in continuous clock mode for the remainder of the period and the margin grew to as many as 40. However, Lincolnview (1-6) was able to string together some points, including seven by Cal Evans, making it 56-22 entering the fourth quarter. Evans and Kreston Tow each scored five points in the fourth quarter.

“I thought our kids executed well at times,” Hammons said. “Not all of our shots went in but I thought we did a good job in the second half of getting back in transition and stopping the ball a little bit. It’s just stuff we have to build on for Fort Recovery.”

Both coaches emptied their respective benches in the fourth quarter.

“We told our guys we still need to build some depth,” Laudick said. “We have to get some other guys some meaningful varsity minutes in order for us to build that depth. We’re going to play 11 in the month of January and for us to only roll with six guys for 11 games, we’re probably going to run out of gas.”

Playing roughly two and a half quarters, Pratt led all scorers with 17 points, while Smith added 12. Evans led Lincolnview with 15 points and Austin Bockrath finished with 11, including six in the first quarter.

The Cougars were 28-of-54 from the floor and 2-of-3 from the foul line with 22 rebounds and eight turnovers. The Lancers finished 16-of-34 from the floor and 2-of-7 from the free throw line with 15 rebounds and 11 turnovers.

Lincolnview will host Fort Recovery tonight, while Van Wert will travel to Columbus Grove on Tuesday.

Box score

Cougars 14 30 12 8 – 64
Lancers 8 3 11 16 – 38

Van Wert: Carson Smith 6-0-12; Garett Gunter 3-0-8; Collin Haggerty 1-0-2; Kaden Shaffer 3-0-7; Aidan Pratt 8-0-17; Conner Campbell 1-0-2; Nate Phillips 2-0-5; Luke Wessell 3-2-9; Gage Stemen 1-0-2

Lincolnview: Kreston Tow 2-1-5; Cal Evans 6-0-15; Austin Bockrath 5-1-11; Reide Jackson 2-0-5; Wyatt Friedrich 1-0-2