Late VW rally stuns Wayne Trace 56-55

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Christmas may have come a bit early for the Van Wert Cougars.

After trailing by as many as 20, Aidan Pratt’s steal of a Wayne Trace inbound pass and ensuing layup and foul shot with 1.3 seconds left gave the Cougars an improbable 56-55 win over previously undefeated Wayne Trace at the Cougar’s Den on Saturday.

12 of Pratt’s game high 21 points came in the fourth quarter.

“I’m still trying to process it all, but we wanted to see if we could at least get in the way of the pass,” Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said after the game. “I love the guys that I coach and they never stopped believing. We challenged some guys at halftime and asked if that was the hardest or best they could play and they rose to the occasion.”

“I’m proud of all 11 guys,” Laudick added. “We’re 11 strong and we’re pretty excited about what we can do. We still have some work to do but it’s a pretty cool feeling.”

Van Wert (4-2) trailed 48-37 to start the fourth quarter but scored seven unanswered points, including five by Pratt, to make it 48-44. However, Wayne Trace’s Brooks Laukhuf drilled a trey to give the Raiders a 51-44 lead with 2:05 left.

The Cougars kept chipping away and pulled to within two, 53-51, when Garett Gunter was fouled on a three point attempt and made all three free throws with 13 seconds left.

“Those were huge,” Laudick said. “We told our guys during a timeout that we had to be in attack mode and Garett got the guy in the air, leaned into him and went to the free throw line.”

Wayne Trace’s Trevor Sinn converted a pair of foul shots with 11 seconds left to push the lead to 55-51, but a layup by Maddix Crutchfield made it 55-53 and set up Pratt’s heroics.

“I thought we played well enough to win but we need to learn to close out games when we have the lead,” Wayne Trace head coach Jim Linder said. “Van Wert did a nice job of defending us in the second half and they made a great play at the end. It’s something we need to learn from and hopefully it will make us better as the season goes on.”

The Raiders (6-1) barged out to a 9-0 lead to start the game and led 21-6 after the first quarter, with Kyle Stoller scoring 10 of his 18 points in the period, and Laukhuf putting in seven of his 19 points.

Wayne Trace extended the lead to 26-6 two minutes into the second quarter and the Raiders went on to hold a 35-18 lead at halftime. The lead was 19 on more than one occasion in the third quarter but Van Wert trimmed it to 11 with a late flurry of points, including three baskets by Crutchfield and a pair of treys by Luke Wessell.

Van Wert finished 22-of-45 from the floor and 7-of-13 from the foul line with 20 rebounds and 12 turnovers. Wayne Trace was 18-of-37 shooting and 16-of-18 from the free throw line with 21 rebounds and 10 turnovers.

Both teams are back in action Tuesday, as Van Wert will host Ottoville and Wayne Trace will return home for Arlington.

Scoring summary

Cougars 6 12 19 19 – 56
Raiders 21 14 13 7 – 55

Van Wert: Ethan Brown 1-0-2; Carson Smith 0-1-1; Garett Gunter 2-3-7; Trey Laudick 1-0-3; Aidan Pratt 8-3-21; Maddix Crutchfield 4-0-8; Nate Phillips 3-0-6; Luke Wessell 3-0-8

Wayne Trace: Hudson Myers 0-2-2; Trevor Sinn 1-2-4; Cameron Sinn 2-0-4; Brooks Laukhuf 6-4-19; Tyler Davis 0-4-4; Kyle Stoller 7-4-18

JV: Van Wert 51-35