Hurless injury key to Cougar loss

DAVE MOSIER/independent sports

The Van Wert Cougars, without their second-highest scorer, couldn’t generate much offense Friday evening in a 45-31 Western Buckeye League boys’ basketball loss to Defiance. Even worse, the Cougars may have lost their top scorer in the final quarter of Friday’s WBL contest.

Van Wert was forced to play the Bulldogs without Joey Hurless, who was reportedly out with an ankle injury Friday night. Unfortunately, no one other than top-scorer AJ Smith was able to generate much offense and that created a problem for the Cougars.

Defiance took a big 11-point lead in the first quarter, 18-7, and stretched that to 18 points, 28-10, at the half. The two teams played even in the third quarter and the game remained an 18-point spread, 38-20, heading into the final quarter.

The Cougars tried to make a comeback in the final stanza, but the loss of Smith later in the quarter nipped the rally in the bud and the effort came up short at the end.

Smith led Van Wert with 15 points, but the was the only Cougar in double figures. Defiance’s leading scorer was Will Batt, with 11 points, while Trey Guilliam added 10 for the Bulldogs.

Van Wert didn’t shoot all that well from the field, hitting just 8 of 19 from two-point range (42.1 percent) and 4 of 14 three-point attempts (28.6 percent). They were 3 of 4, though, from the free-throw line (75 percent). Defiance made 10 of 24 two-point attempts (41.7 percent), but were 4 of 8 from three-point range (50 percent) and hit 13 of 19 free-throw attempts (68.4 percent).

The Cougars won the rebounding battle with 21 caroms to 17 for Defiance, but had more than twice as many turnovers (15-6).

With the loss, Van Wert is now 9-7 on the year and 2-4 in the WBL. The Bulldogs are now 12-5 overall and 3-3 in league play.

The Cougar junior varsity team continued its winning ways, downing Defiance 51-34 in the opener. Nathan Stoller and Drew Myers each had 12 points, although Stoller made all of his points from beyond the arc.

The JVs are now 15-1 overall.