{"id":149567,"date":"2021-12-22T04:51:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T09:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=149567"},"modified":"2021-12-22T04:52:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T09:52:08","slug":"cougars-enjoy-59-54-win-over-ottoville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2021\/12\/22\/cougars-enjoy-59-54-win-over-ottoville\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars enjoy 59-54 win over Ottoville"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

It\u2019s accurate to say Van Wert\u2019s 59-54 win over Ottoville on Tuesday was a total team effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three players finished in double figures, the Cougars held a 31-17 rebounding advantage and Van Wert forced 12 turnovers, including five in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Garett Gunter scored 11 points during Tuesday’s game against Ottoville. Bob Barnes\/file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking steps in the right direction and I see that we\u2019re getting there,\u201d Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. \u201cWe\u2019re not there yet but we\u2019re getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think this will be one of the better non-conference opponents that we\u2019ll play,\u201d Ottoville head coach Keith Utendorf said. \u201cObviously they\u2019re just starting to get back into a flow as they get their legs back from the football run they made. I\u2019m pretty proud of our guys overall for how they competed, how they matched that effort level and the physicality that Van Wert presents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars led 15-12 after the first quarter, with the go-ahead points coming on a late trey by Luke Wessell, a basket that helped offset eight points by Ottoville\u2019s Will Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethan Brown scored all 11 of Van Wert\u2019s points in the second quarter, including a pair of free throws that put the Cougars ahead 24-18 but the Big Green fought back and trimmed Van Wert\u2019s lead to two, 26-24, on a late period trey by Michael Steffan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI real pleased that Ethan was more aggressive and more confident with his shots and if we can string some games together with him, it\u2019ll take a little bit off Aidan and Garett,\u201d Laudick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The two teams traded the lead four times in the third quarter, with Miller adding eight more points in the period for Ottoville, while Van Wert\u2019s Aidan Pratt countered with six to give the Cougars a 41-39 lead entering the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert was able to extend the lead to as many as nine, 54-45 in the final stanza, but back-to-back three-pointers by Miller and Kellen Schlaugbaum pulled the Big Green to within four, 56-52. A late steal by Maddix Crutchfield then a pair of foul shots by Carson Smith helped the Cougars seal the victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pratt finished with 15 points, Brown finished with 13 and Gunter tallied 11. In addition, Crutchfield had eight points, including a pair of buckets in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we can get four guys close to double figures I feel pretty good about our chances on most nights,\u201d Laudick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars finished 23-of-41 from the floor and 10-of-13 from the foul line, while Ottoville was 22-of-44 but just 3-of-8 from the free throw line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert (5-2) will host Columbus Grove on Monday and Ottoville (6-5) will travel to Minster next Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Van Wert 15 11 15 18 \u2013 59
Ottoville 12 12 15 15 \u2013 54<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert: Ethan Brown 6-1-13; Carson Smith 1-2-4; Garett Gunter 5-0-11; Trey Laudick 1-0-3; Aidan Pratt 4-7-15; Maddix Crutchfield 4-0-8; Luke Wessell 2-0-5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ottoville: Will Miller 9-2-23; Carter Schnipke 1-0-3; Michael Steffan 2-0-5; Kellen Schlagbaum 7-0-16; Carter Horstman 1-0-2; Michael Turnwald 2-0-5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV: Ottoville 58-36<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor It\u2019s accurate to say Van Wert\u2019s 59-54 win over Ottoville on Tuesday was a total team effort. Three players finished in double figures, the Cougars held a 31-17 rebounding advantage and Van Wert forced 12 turnovers, including five in the fourth quarter. \u201cWe\u2019re taking steps in the right direction and I see […]<\/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-149567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 22:14:12","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\/149567","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=149567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}