Cougar girls use size to beat Lincolnview

Van Wert independent sports

The Van Wert Lady Cougars used balanced scoring — with a devastating inside game — and good defense to defeat Lincolnview 63-39 in a cross-county rivalry game on Tuesday evening in the Cougar’s Den.

The Cougar girls were led by its three big players, with 6-1 senior Alex Morrow scoring 25 points, 5-9 freshman forward Alexis Dowdy adding 13 points and 5-10 senior forward Molly Gamble with 12 points for Van Wert. The Lady Lancers were led by their tallest player, 5-7 Carly Springer’s 15 points. Katie Dye and Julia Thatcher each added 8 points to the Lincolnview offensive totals.

The game was close … for a quarter, with the Lady Lancers trailing by only a basket, 15-13, at the end of the first period. But that’s when the bottom fell out for Lincolnview as the Cougar girls went on a tear, outscoring the Lancers 16-8 in the second stanza to go up by 10, 31-21, at the half.

Van Wert used its size inside to dominate the smaller Lancers, with the bigger Cougars doing most of their scoring in the paint.

Van Wert continued its offensive onslaught in the second half, more than doubling the Lancers’ output, 13-6, for a 17-point lead, 44-27, heading into the final quarter. Lincolnview’s offense got untracked a bit in the final period, but the Cougars didn’t slow down, either, outpointing the Lancers 19-12 in the fourth quarter for the win.

In addition to its field goal production, Van Wert shot well from the free throw line, downing 15 0f 18 at the charity stripe (83.3 percent). The Lancers were 6 of 11 at the line (54.5 percent).

With the victory, The Cougars are now 5-4 on the year, while Lincolnview is 4-6 overall.

The Van Wert junior varsity team was also victorious, 35-27, to run its record to 6-3 on the year.

The Cougars will host Kenton this Thursday for a Western Buckeye League match-up. JV start time is 6 p.m. Lincolnview will also be at home against Putnam County League team Kalida for a non-conference game.