County boys’ cage teams all win Friday

DAVE MOSIER/independent sports

The Van Wert Cougars outdid the Shawnee Indians in just about everything but turnovers as they won their Western Buckeye League opener 65-34 on Friday night.

The Cougars opened up a 14-point lead in the first quarter and led by 21 at the half, thanks in part to Reggie Phillips’ quick hands. Phillips made eight steals in the half and scored 12 of his 14 points in the first two periods, eight of those in the second quarter.

Van Wert had its up-tempo game honed to perfection and also outscored the Indians 31-21 in the second half to run away with the contest.

Phillips was the game’s top scorer, while brother Chadd scored 11 points and Jake Myers added 10 for the Cougars. In all, nine players scored for Van Wert, with six of those having more than 5 points. Leading scorer for Shawnee was Seth Rosenbauer, who scored 10 points and was the only Indian in double figures.

The Cougars were blistering from two-point range, hitting 26 of 37 attempts for 70.2 percent, while holding Shawnee to 5 of 25 (20 percent) two-point shots. Van Wert didn’t do as well from behind the arc, hitting just 3 of 11 attempts (27.3 percent), while the Indians were 6 of 19 (31.6 percent) from three-point range.

Less than a week after going 14 of 14 from the line, the Cougar free-throw shooting dropped to 40 percent (4 of 10), mostly because Myers, the best free-throw shooter on the team, didn’t go to the line once. Shawnee was 6 of 10 (60 percent) from the line.

Van Wert also had the edge in rebounding, bringing down 18 caroms to 16 for the Indians. Turnovers were heavily in the Cougars’ favor, as Shawnee turned the ball over 28 times, to 14 for Van Wert.

With the win, the Cougars are now 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the WBL, while Shawnee falls to 1-4 overall and 0-1 in league play.

The Van Wert junior varsity team also maintained its perfect record with a 61-39 win over the Indian JVs. The Cougars had three players in double figures, led by Matt Bidlack’s 14 points, while Kyle Keber scored 13 and Chris Miller added 10 points for Van Wert. Casey Mulcahy was Shawnee’s top scorer with 13 points.

The Cougar JVS are now 4-0 on the year.

Elsewhere in the county, the Crestview Knights took two overtimes but finally overcame a scrappy Delphos Jefferson team 47-45 in a Northwest Conference game on Friday.

Nick Adam led the Knights in scoring with 14 points, while Dallis Gibson had 11 points and Damian Helm added 10 points for the victors. Jefferson was led by Nick Dunlap’s 13 points, and Tony George added 11 points for the Wildcats.

Lincolnview also came up with a NWC win over Bluffton. Sloan Whitaker was the Lancers’ top scorer, with 15 points, while Kyle Williams scored 14 and Clayton Longstreth had 10 points for Lincolnview.