Kelly leads Cougars to 18 point win

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

Van Wert’s Xavier Kelly put his athleticism on display against Columbus Grove Tuesday night.

The 6-0 sophomore guard scored a career-high 28 points, including 19 in the second half to lead Van Wert by the Bulldogs 68-50. He accounted for nine baskets, one of which was a trey, and was 9-of-11 from the foul line.

“You see his emergence as floor leader for us,” Van Wert head coach Jeremy Best said. “He had a lot of floor to work with tonight and when he can get on the open floor and when his decision making is on point, he can be very dangerous for us facilitating and getting to the rim.”

Despite battling foul trouble in the third quarter, Zach Crummey finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds.

“We ask so much of him because he’s our only physical presence and he’s still a sophomore, so we want him to play hard and we want him to be aggressive,” Best said. “He’s really starting to learn how to play every possession that really matters but be sensitive to the fact that he needs to stay on the floor for us for a long period of time. He can control the middle of the floor for us and that gives us a nice option when X (Xavier Kelly) is breaking things down.”

The Cougars (6-2) found themselves down 18-13 after one quarter, with Griffin McCracken supplying a pair of treys in the opening period and Columbus Grove’s Trevon Baxter scoring 10 of his points in the quarter.  Early in the second quarter, Columbus Grove (2-2) went up 23-15 and had the ball, but a hook shot by Crummey, a trey by Kelly and another bucket by Crummey sparked an 11-0 run. By halftime, Van Wert led 28-27.

The third quarter remained close and the Cougars took a 47-41 lead into the fourth quarter, where Van Wert put up a flurry of points to push the lead to 64-47 at one point in the period.

The Cougars were 26-of-51 from the floor and 12-of-15 from the foul line with 32 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive end.

“It was a good team effort,” Best said. “Once we settled down and took some control of ourselves on the offensive end and stopped turning it over, we got some stops that led to some easy leakouts and easy buckets for us.”

Columbus Grove was 22-of-51 shooting but just 2-of-6 from the free throw line with 22 rebounds.

After back-to-back losses, the Cougars have now won three straight games.

“I like where our kids are right now, mentally, emotionally and physically,” Best said. “They’re starting to see the light of conversations we have with them and they’re starting to have a care and concern for their teammates and what each teammate is doing in the process of making us a good team.”

Van Wert will return to action Saturday at home against Ottoville.

“We’re going to take a couple days off,” Best said. “We’re not going to practice on Wednesday or obviously on Christmas Day – they’re looking forward to it and we can come back and go Friday and even again Saturday morning and prep for our game that day. The two days come at the right time for us – we’re at the end of a 12-day, six game stretch and these two days are going to be a blessing for us.”

Box score

Cougars  13  15  19  21 – 68

Bulldogs  18    9  14    9 – 50

Van Wert: Xavier Kelley 9-9-28; Griffin McCracken 3-0-9; Keaten Welch 2-1-5; Caden Collins 2-0-1; Zach Crummey 8-0-16; Cohen Bragg 2-2-6

Columbus Grove: Gavin Baxter 2-1-5; Brady Basinger 4-0-8; Clark Keehn 1-0-2; Gavin Barazza 2-0-4; Trevon Baxter 5-0-10; Landon Best 3-0-6; Gage Sautter 4-1-13; Noah Strahm 1-0-3.

JV: Van Wert 48-33