{"id":138378,"date":"2020-12-18T23:22:45","date_gmt":"2020-12-19T04:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=138378"},"modified":"2020-12-18T23:23:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T04:23:24","slug":"cougars-struggle-in-51-39-loss-to-wapak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/12\/18\/cougars-struggle-in-51-39-loss-to-wapak\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars struggle in 51-39 loss to Wapak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Baskets and free throws didn\u2019t come easy for Van Wert as the Cougars dropped Friday night\u2019s Western Buckeye League opener 51-39 to visiting Wapakoneta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert was just 13-of-50 (26 percent) from the floor and 9-of-21 (40 percent) from the foul line, but even with the shooting woes, the Cougars were very much in the game until late in the third quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Aidan Pratt moves in for two points against Wapakoneta. Wyatt Richardon\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Wapakoneta (5-2) led 10-9 after the first quarter and with a late three-pointer by Noah Ambos, 22-18 at halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Redskins were able to stretch the lead to 26-18 early in the third quarter, before Owen Treece scored seven of Van Wert\u2019s next eight points and tied the game 26-26 with 3:30 left in the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pair of foul shots by Treece and a bucket by Aidan Pratt with 1:10 left in the third period pulled Van Wert to within two, 33-31, but Wapaoneta\u2019s Zach Rogers and Jackson Courter hit back-to-back triples to give the Redskins a 39-31 lead at the end of the quarter. Those shots also sparked a 16-0 run, including five points by Ambos and four by Kaden Siefring early in the fourth quarter that helped increase Wapakoneta\u2019s lead to 49-31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treece, who finished with 18 points, ended the scoring drought with a trey at the 3:51 mark of the final period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce again the effort was there and other than that one stretch defensively I thought we did a lot of good things,\u201d Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. \u201cThe offensive stuff is frustrating but my message to the guys was don\u2019t be frustrated because eventually that stuff is going to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI told my guys it\u2019s not an excuse but they just played their seventh game and we played our second game,\u201d the coach added. \u201cThey almost have more games than we have practices and that shows, but once we get our basketball legs going we\u2019ll be fine, it\u2019s just trying to survive that scoring lull that\u2019s crept up for us these last two games.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Wapakoneta was 19-of-37 from the floor and 8-of-10 from the free throw line. The Cougars won the rebounding battle 25-22 and had just eight turnovers, compared to 10 for the Redskins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambos finished with 16 points while Siefring also cracked double digits with 12 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert (0-2) will hit the road for the first time this season and will play at Wayne Trace tonight. The Cougars won\u2019t play another home game until January 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re young and talented and they\u2019re going to present some matchups that if we don\u2019t take care of those it could be a difficult night for us,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cMaybe going on the road is what we need right now, we\u2019ll go there and maybe the basketball gods will smile upon us a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the game, Van Wert eighth grade boys\u2019 basketball coach Kerry Koontz was honored for recently earning his 300th career victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Van Wert 9 9 13 6 \u2013 39
Wapakoneta 10 12 17 12 \u2013 51<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert: Owen Treece 5-5-18; Garrett Gunter 2-1-5; Ty Jackson 1-1-3; Aidan Pratt 2-2-6; Nate Jackson 1-0-2; Evan Knittle 1-0-2; Ethan Rupert 1-0-3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wapakoneta: Noah Ambos 6-2-16; Zach Rogers 3-1-8; Kaden Seifring 4-4-12; Braedan Goulet 1-1-3; Jackson Courter 3-0-8; Garrett Siefring 2-0-4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV: Wapakoneta 53-42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor Baskets and free throws didn\u2019t come easy for Van Wert as the Cougars dropped Friday night\u2019s Western Buckeye League opener 51-39 to visiting Wapakoneta. Van Wert was just 13-of-50 (26 percent) from the floor and 9-of-21 (40 percent) from the foul line, but even with the shooting woes, the Cougars were […]<\/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-138378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 17:12:37","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\/138378","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=138378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}