{"id":114471,"date":"2019-03-08T05:16:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T10:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=114471"},"modified":"2019-03-08T05:18:19","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T10:18:19","slug":"d-ii-district-preview-van-wert-vs-shawnee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/03\/08\/d-ii-district-preview-van-wert-vs-shawnee\/","title":{"rendered":"D-II district preview: Van Wert vs. Shawnee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could superstitions be a part of Van Wert\u2019s run to Saturday\u2019s Division II district championship game at Ohio Northern University?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCoaches are wearing everything the same,\u201d Van Wert head coach Mark Bagley explained. \u201cIn our sectional semifinal, sectional final and district semifinal games we wore gray pants and red shirts, and we\u2019ll wear them for the district final.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Drew Bagley barrels through three defenders during Wednesday night’s game against Defiance.<\/strong> Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs far as the players \u2013 we\u2019ve found pennies throughout the year and we found a pretty cool little ancient bag that we\u2019re depositing our pennies in after each game,\u201d the coach added. \u201cAmazingly, we have a certain amount of pennies which I won\u2019t disclose right now, but so far we\u2019ve deposited three pennies and we have more to deposit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Superstitions or not, the Cougars have knocked off two higher seeded teams to advance to Saturday\u2019s 7 p.m. Division II district championship game at the King Horn Sports Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One game after rallying from 18 down to defeat state ranked and No. 2 seed Wauseon, Van Wert beat No. 3 seed Defiance 27-25 in overtime on Wednesday Now, the Cougars will face top seeded Shawnee (22-2) with a trip to the regionals on the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind 26 points by George Mangas, the Indians defeated Elida 55-40. Tyson Elwer had nine points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocked shots in the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bagley knows the Cougars must be ready for a multifaceted attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor a sophomore, the Mangas kid plays like a sophomore in college,\u201d Bagley said. \u201cHe\u2019s got an unbelievable feel for the game, he\u2019s a great finisher, he\u2019s longer than 6-3 with his arms and his IQ is off the charts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cElwer has really come on as a sophomore post and has patrolled the inside, and their proven guys \u2013 (Johnny) Caprella, (Sheridan) O\u2019Neal have played varsity for three years doing their thing, then (Justin) Behnke is an unbelievable teammate as far as pressuring the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOff the bench they bring in instant offense in (John) Barker, who can fire from anywhere and he really hurt us in the first game by hitting some big shots. (Jarin) Bertke can really shoot it and they really are a complete team. They are 22-2 for a reason, and their two losses are to Ottawa-Glandorf and St. Henry, so we\u2019ll have our hands full.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
LeTrey Williams aims for the basket against Defiance.<\/strong> Bob Barnes photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe unselfishness and effort our kids play with is contagious,\u201d Shawnee head coach Mark Triplett said of his team. \u201cWe just need to keep coming together and find ways to get one percent better each day and we will have a chance to be successful night in and night out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Van Wert and Shawnee met on January 18, the Indians outscored the Cougars 22-10 in the fourth quarter and won 70-49. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember we shot it pretty well and the final was not indicative of the type of game it was,\u201d Triplett said. \u201cWe were up six late in the third and ran away a bit in the fourth. Van Wert is tough and physical and they’ll be a huge challenge for us on Saturday night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey shot it really poorly Wednesday night and still found a way to win,\u201d Triplett added. \u201cThey are strong, athletic, hard-nosed kids and are very well coached. They are 11-2 since our game against them and are on quite a roll.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both coaches were asked what needs to be done to win the district championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDefensively, we have to be better than our man one-on-one, we have to force them to take jump shots and we have to try to rebound,\u201d Bagley said. \u201cI think we have to run at Shawnee, not with them. I\u2019m not sure we have the depth to run with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen there are opportunities, we have to run and get easy baskets. That\u2019s where Nate Place is so good, that\u2019s where Owen Treece so good to get his feet set, Drew (Bagley) trailing, Lawson (Blackmore) and Blake (Henry) inside rebounding and hitting shots, then LeTrey (Williams) obviously can push the ball for us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose six have to play their roles, and the third thing is the intangibles \u2013 our guys believe and that\u2019s all that matters to me right now. We have shown throughout this season that we have grit and toughness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c We must control the pace – give them one shot and get the ball up the floor, and pass up good shots for great shots,\u201d Triplett said. \u201c We have to contest shots and pressure ball handlers – we must make life difficult for them on their offensive end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s Van Wert-Shawnee game will air live on WERT 1220AM\/104.3FM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner will face either Cleveland Central Catholic or Parma Heights Holy Name\/Bay on Wednesday at Bowling Green State University. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor Could superstitions be a part of Van Wert\u2019s run to Saturday\u2019s Division II district championship game at Ohio Northern University? \u201cCoaches are wearing everything the same,\u201d Van Wert head coach Mark Bagley explained. \u201cIn our sectional semifinal, sectional final and district semifinal games we wore gray pants and red shirts, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 00:26:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}