Cougars get sectional win over St. Marys

DAVE MOSIER/independent sports

PAULDING — The Van Wert Cougars got off to a rocky start, but overcame their shaky beginning to beat St. Marys 68-59 in a Division II sectional tournament game played at Paulding on Tuesday.

Van Wert (13-10) used a balanced offense to counter individual performances by the Roughriders’ Derek Jay and Braden Dunlap, who scored 20 and 19 points, respectively, for St. Marys (8-15). Jacoby Kelly led the Cougars with 18 points, while Nate Place scored 17 points, Drew Bagley had 13 points, and Dylan Lautzenheiser added 10 points, including 7 of 9 from the free throw line, for Van Wert.

The Roughriders got out to a quick start and led 14-7 at the end of a quarter. The Cougars recovered, though, and outscored St. Marys 22-17 in the second quarter to trial by a basket, 31-29, at the half. Both teams pumped in 17 points in the third quarter to set up an intense final stanza that saw the Cougars shoot — and make — enough free throws to ice the win.

Van Wert was 15 of 20 at the line in the second half, with nearly all of those coming in the fourth quarter.

Overall, the Cougars were 21 of 48 from the field (43.75 percent), including just 5 of 18 from three-point range (27.8 percent). St. Marys made 23 of 42 field goal attempts (54.8 percent), including 5 of 15 three-point attempts (33.3 percent).

The free throw line was where Van Wert won the game, making 21 of 26 (80.8 percent) free throws, while the ‘Riders were 8 of 13 at the charity stripe (61.5 percent).

The Cougars also outrebounded St. Marys 28-19, but had one more turnover, 11-10, than the Roughriders.

Van Wert will now play Elida (13-9) for a sectional title at 8 p.m. Friday, March 3. Tickets are on sale today and Thursday at Mengerink’s Source for Sports and in the athletic director’s office during regular hours.

Bryan defeated Celina 50-41 in the first game of the night at Paulding on Tuesday.

Box score:

St. Marys 14 17 17 11—59

Van Wert   7 22 17 22—68

St. Marys (59) — Braden Dunlap 19, Austin Wilker 6, Drew Jacobs 2, Colin Clements 5, Derek Jay 20, Jacob Grannan 4, Ethan Mielke 3. Totals: 23 8-13 59.

Van Wert (68) — Jacoby Kelly 18, Nate Place 17, Nick Gutierrez 6, Dylan Lautzenheiser 10, Drew Bagley 13, Blake Henry 2. Totals: 21 21-26 68.