Cougars notch first win of the season

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

KALIDA — Van Wert trailed Kalida for the better part of the first half and the Cougars needed a spark to get over the hump.

That spark came from freshman guard Keaten Welch, who drained a deep trey from the right wing with just over two minutes to go until halftime. It gave Van Wert a 20-19 lead and the Cougars never trailed again on the way to a 55-47 victory. The win was the first of the season for Van Wert (1-5), while Kalida dropped to 0-6.

“That was a big shot that Keaten hit and very shortly thereafter there was a timeout called and we said ‘hey we’ve got a lead…we haven’t had many this year and we have to build on that,’” Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. “The shot really gave us some momentum going into the locker room at halftime.”

Conner Campbell scored seven of his 13 points in the second quarter and Van Wert enjoyed a 26-21 halftime lead. Welch, who also finished with 13 points, hit another trey from the top of the key in the third quarter to expand the lead to eight, but Kalida closed the gap to four, 39-35, by the end of the period, with Kalida’s Braylon Smith scoring five points in the quarter and Caden Looser added a trey.

Kalida’s Jaxon Hoffman scored eight of his 13 points in the fourth quarter, but Colin Haggerty scored five points in the quarter, including three key free throws and Kaden Shaffer added a big trey.

“We’ve been in some difficult situations this season and in previous games every time we made a run the other team always countered and tonight we had the lead and when they made shots, we countered to keep the lead or extend our lead, which was nice to see,” Laudick said. “The guys are super excited and I’m real happy for Kaden – the kid plays a lot of minutes and this is his first win as a senior. I’m real excited for all of our guys and I think there was a collective deep breath we took in the locker room afterward.”

“We play a challenging schedule and we can’t let doubt creep in,” he continued. “As soon as we do that things aren’t going to be good for us. We’re going to practice really hard on Monday because we have quite possibly one of the top five teams on our schedule with Lima Central Catholic next Friday.”

Box score

Cougars 10 16 13 16 – 55
Wildcats 11 10 14 12 – 47

Van Wert: Gage Stemen 2-0-4; Kaden Shaffer 2-1-6; Conner Campbell 5-3-13; Rylan Miller 4-0-8; Keaten Welch 5-1-13; Collin Haggerty 3-5-11

Kalida: Braylon Smith 4-3-11; Caden Looser 2-0-5; Jackson Schroeder 2-1-5; Jacob Siebeneck 2-0-5; Jaxon Hoffman 4-4-13; Griffin Klausing 1-1-3; Carson Remlinger 2-0-4

JV: Kalida 36-35