{"id":126130,"date":"2019-12-21T00:10:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-21T05:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=126130"},"modified":"2019-12-21T00:10:41","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T05:10:41","slug":"cougars-pull-away-for-big-win-over-wapak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/12\/21\/cougars-pull-away-for-big-win-over-wapak\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars pull away for big win over Wapak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

WAPAKONETA — A big third quarter by Van Wert sparked the Cougars to a 68-46 Western Buckeye League win over Wapakoneta on Friday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The victory snapped a three game losing streak and it was Van Wert\u2019s first win over the Redskins since the 2011-2012 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading 28-26 to start the third quarter, the Cougars (2-3, 1-1 WBL) hit five treys, including two each by Owen Treece and Jake Hilleary and one by Clayton Proffit to open up a 47-36 entering the final period. In addition, Van Wert ended the quarter on a 13-4 scoring run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ben Laudick<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur message at halftime was we needed to be tougher on the defensive end and we did that,\u201d Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick explained. \u201cOwen got things going for us offensively and because of that, it made things open up for everyone else, including Jake Hilleary, Keaton Brown and Clayton Proffitt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have more than one shooter on our team and finally a couple of those guys got some shots to go in and some confidence, so hopefully that carries into games that are coming on our schedule,\u201d Laudick added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce they made a couple of shots in the third quarter, guys that haven\u2019t been hot this year found their shot and it just snowballed,\u201d Wapakoneta head coach Doug Davis said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do a very good job of putting any kind of pressure on them or getting offensive rebounds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars kept up the pace to start the fourth quarter, with Treece adding eight of his game high 29 points, while the defense continued to hold Wapakoneta in check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the game, Van Wert was 27-46 (59 percent) from the floor, including 10-19 from three point range, and the Cougars held a staggering 28-10 rebounding advantage. Wapakoneta (2-4, 0-2 WBL) shot 46 percent from the floor (19-41), including just 5-17 from beyond the arc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In addition to Treece, Proffit finished with 11 points, Hilleary tallied 10 and Keaton Brown scored eight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things didn\u2019t look good early on for the Cougars. Wapakoneta opened up a 12-2 lead in the first quarter, with Reed Merricle scoring 11 of his team high 17 points, but Van Wert was able to regroup and close the gap to just three, 16-13 by the end of the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parker Conrad came off the bench and provided a spark to start the second quarter, hitting back-to-back baskets and making key defensive plays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s kind of our junkyard dog \u2013 he just loves physical play,\u201d Laudick said of Conrad. \u201cThey put five guards out there and he knew he was going to have quick feet and use his body to get in the way. He did and got some good stops and some rebounds which let us get out and run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the two teams went back and forth for much of the quarter, Owen Treece scored the final six points for Van Wert to give the Cougars a two point halftime lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert will host Wayne Trace tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scoring summary<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wapakoneta 16 10 10 10 \u2013 46
Van Wert 13 15 19 21 \u2013 68<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wapakoneta: Noah Ambos 3-0-7; Reed Merricle 7-2-17; Kaden Siefring 1-0-3; Braeden Goulet 3-1-9; Peyton Debell 1-0-2; Trey Ware 1-0-3; Garrett Siefring3-0-6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert: Clayton Proffitt 4-0-11; Owen Treece 10-4-29; Keaton Brown 4-0-8; Tanner Barnhart 1-0-2; Jake Hilleary 4-0-10; Parker Conrad 3-0-6; Colin Place 1-0-2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV: Van Wert 40-37<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor WAPAKONETA — A big third quarter by Van Wert sparked the Cougars to a 68-46 Western Buckeye League win over Wapakoneta on Friday night. The victory snapped a three game losing streak and it was Van Wert\u2019s first win over the Redskins since the 2011-2012 season. Leading 28-26 to start the […]<\/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-126130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 19:56:37","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\/126130","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=126130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}