Cougar boys lose to Delphos Jefferson

DAVE MOSIER/independent sports

It wasn’t a good weekend for the Van Wert Cougar boys’ basketball team. The Cougars had trouble finding the hoop all weekend in losses Wapakoneta Friday in a Western Buckeye League battle and then to Delphos Jefferson, which beat Van Wert 53-32 on Saturday.

Although only four Wildcats got into the scoring column on Saturday, two of those players, Trey Smith (25 points) and Ross Thompson (14 points) scored more points than the entire Cougar team. Van Wert was led by Matt Bidlack’s 10 points, the only Cougar in double figures. Jefferson’s Tyler Rice almost made into the double-figure column, scoring 9 points in the game.

Van Wert (9-12) had the early lead, 9-7, at the end of a less-than-stellar first quarter, but it was downhill after that. The Wildcats (13-8) outscored Van Wert 19-8 in the second stanza to go up by nine points, 26-17, at the half.

Delphos continued its dominance over the Cougars, outscoring them 15-6 in the third quarter to lead by 18 points, 41-23, at the end of the third quarter and then coasted out in the final stanza on clutch shooting, especially from the free-throw line.

Van Wert was 13 of 51 from the field (25.5 percent), including a 5-of-24 performance (20.8 percent) from three-point range. The Cougars shot only two free throw attempts and made one of them, while Jefferson made an incredible 13 of 14 free throw attempts (92.9 percent).

The Wildcats also dominated on the boards, bringing down twice as many rebounds (32-16) as Van Wert. Both teams had four turnovers in the game.

The Cougar junior varsity team got a measure of revenge for the shellacking it took on Friday by beating Jefferson 61-20 on Saturday. Colin Smith, Gavin Cross and Kegan Hardmon each had 10 points in the game, while holding the Wildcat JVs scoreless in the final quarter of play.

Van Wert will face St. Marys this coming Friday in its final regular season game and then return to St. Marys on February 26 for a game against Coldwater in the Division III sectional tournament held at Memorial High School.