{"id":149377,"date":"2021-12-17T23:41:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T04:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=149377"},"modified":"2021-12-17T23:41:51","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T04:41:51","slug":"defiance-rallies-to-edge-van-wert-46-43","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2021\/12\/17\/defiance-rallies-to-edge-van-wert-46-43\/","title":{"rendered":"Defiance rallies to edge Van Wert 46-43"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Van Wert\u2019s home opener went right down to the wire but the Cougars came up just short, falling to Defiance 46-43 on Friday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A free throw by Bradyn Shaw gave the Bulldogs a 45-43 lead with nine seconds left and after a time out, Van Wert\u2019s Ethan Brown launched a three-point attempt from the top of the key but the ball glanced off the rim. Defiance\u2019s Cayden Zachrich rebounded the errant shot and was fouled, then hit a free throw with 4.4 seconds left but missed the second, setting up a shot just beyond halfcourt by Aidan Pratt, which hit the rim as the buzzer sounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Van Wert’s Garett Gunter finds himself guarded by Defiance’s Brayden Shaw during Friday night’s home opener. Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a great look but it didn\u2019t go in, but it was a great WBL game,\u201d Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. \u201cWe\u2019re pleased with our effort but we\u2019re disappointed with the outcome. That\u2019s what you get on Friday nights in the WBL, it\u2019s going to be a war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert (4-2, 1-1 WBL) led 12-9 after the first quarter and after back-to-back baskets by Brown led 16-11 early in the second period before the Bulldogs fought back and went up 22-19 on a bucket by Isaac Schlatter. Carson Smith tied the game 22-22, then each time finished the half with a trey \u2013 one by Zachrich and one by Garett Gunter that tied the game 25-25 at the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pratt pleased the crowd with a two-handed slam dunk early in third quarter and the Cougars forged a 35-30 lead with two minutes left in the period, but it was the final time Van Wert would score for six minutes. In the meantime, back-to-back treys by Shaw and Zachrich helped put Defiance in front 38-35 and the Bulldogs were later able to extend the lead to 44-39.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCredit to them, they made the plays and hit the shots,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cOur guys are resilient, we\u2019ll be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An area that came back to haunt the Cougars was rebounding, as Defiance (5-2, 2-0 WBL) finished with a 31-17 advantage on the boards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knew we had to rebound and we knew they\u2019re a really good rebounding team on both ends of the floor,\u201d Laudick. \u2018It wasn\u2019t due to effort by our guys, it\u2019s just that Defiance came up with some timely rebounds. I thought early in the second half we came up with all the 50-50 stuff and I felt if we could continue to do that we\u2019d be alright, but down the stretch they got a couple of extra possessions and kicked it out to Zachrich and Shaw.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert finished 17-of-42 shooting and 5-9 from the floor with just five turnovers. Gunter had 12 points while Pratt finished with 19. Defiance was 16-of-35 and 8-of-10 from the free throw line with 10 turnovers. Zachrich led all scorers with 17 and Shaw added 16 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert will host Wayne Trace today, with the junior varsity game starting at 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a really good team and I had a chance to watch them live earlier this season,\u201d Laudick said of the Raiders. \u201cThey have a really solid core of guys and all of them can shoot, all of them are really skilled. It\u2019s another great challenge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Van Wert 12 13 10 8 \u2013 43
Defiance 9 16 5 16 \u2013 46<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert: Ethan Brown 3-0-6; Carson Smith 1-2-5; Garett Gunter 4-2-12; Trey Laudick 1-0-2; Aidan Pratt 4-1-10; Maddix Crutchfield 2-0-6; Nate Phillips 1-0-2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defiance: Bradyn Shaw 6-2-16; Aidan Kiessling 1-2-5; Isaac Schlatter 2-0-4; Nick Mitchell 1-2-4; Cayden Zachrich 6-2-17<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV: Defiance 49-34<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Van Wert\u2019s home opener went right down to the wire but the Cougars came up just short, falling to Defiance 46-43 on Friday night. A free throw by Bradyn Shaw gave the Bulldogs a 45-43 lead with nine seconds left and after a time out, Van Wert\u2019s Ethan Brown launched a three-point […]<\/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-149377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 18:35:39","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\/149377","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=149377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}