{"id":151353,"date":"2022-02-16T04:46:01","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T09:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=151353"},"modified":"2022-02-16T04:46:32","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T09:46:32","slug":"cougars-shut-down-crestview-47-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2022\/02\/16\/cougars-shut-down-crestview-47-39\/","title":{"rendered":"VW Cougars shut down Crestview 47-39"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

CONVOY — The combination of a stifling defense and fourth quarter bench play by Maddix Crutchfield helped Van Wert defeat county rival Crestview 47-39 at Ray Etzler Gymnasium on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Crestview’s Carson Hunter (10) is about to have his shot blocked by Van Wert’s Aidan Pratt (15). Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Trailing 34-32 to start the fourth quarter, the Cougars held Crestview scoreless for most of the period and Crutchfield scored seven of Van Wert\u2019s 15 points down the stretch. The 6-1 junior missed all three of last week\u2019s games due to a concussion, but came up big in the clutch Tuesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI told him he had to wait his turn tonight but show us what he could do when he got in there and he was able to do that,\u201d Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert rattled off 11 unanswered points to start the fourth quarter, putting the Cougars ahead 43-32. The Knights didn\u2019t score until Rontae Jackson drilled a trey from the left wing with 1:03 left in the quarter. Jackson also hit a pair of free throws with under a minute left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought we got some good looks we just didn\u2019t make shots when we needed to,\u201d Crestview head coach Doug Etzler said. \u201cGive credit to Van Wert, I thought they played really well defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars bolted out to a 7-0 lead to start the game but Crestview managed to tie the score 14-14 at the end of the first quarter. Aidan Pratt scored half of Van Wert\u2019s points in the period, while Crestview\u2019s Carson Hunter scored five points and Jackson and Wren Sheets each scored four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert held the Knights to just five points in the second quarter and led 24-19 at halftime. Crestview stormed back in the third quarter and took a 31-28 lead on a three point bomb by Nate Lichtle with just over three minutes left in the period. Garett Gunter later gave the Cougars a 32-31 lead, but Carson Hunter beat the buzzer with a triple that gave Crestview a 34-32 lead entering the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Pratt led all scorers with 16 points, including 12 in the first half. Gunter finished in double figures with 12 and Luke Wessell added eight. As a team, the Cougars 16-of-39 shooting and 12-of-21 from the foul line with 30 rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s starting to see things a whole lot better than he was early in the season,\u201d Laudick said of Gunter. \u201cWe hope he keeps on taking that step. He can do it in a lot of different ways, scoring, rebounding and distributing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson led Crestview with 11 points and Hunter also hit double digits with 10. The Knights collectively shot 15-of-48 and 4-of-9 from the free throw line with 21 rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert (15-6) will finish the regular season at Bath on Friday while Crestview (14-6) will host Leipsic the same night. A win would give the Knights a share of the NWC crown with Bluffton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo days to prepare and it\u2019s a big home game for us and there\u2019s a lot riding on it,\u201d Etzler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Box score<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert 14 10 8 15 \u2013 47
Crestview 14 5 15 5 \u2013 39<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview: Gavin Etzler 1-0-3; Rontae Jackson 4-2-11; Mitch Temple 1-0-2; Carson Hunter 4-1-10; JJ Ward 0-1-1; Nate Lichtle 2-0-5; Wren Sheets 3-0-6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert: Ethan Brown 0-2-2; Carson Smith 0-2-2; Garett Gunter 6-0-12; Aidan Pratt 5-5-16; Maddix Crutchfield 2-3-7; Luke Wessell 3-0-8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV: Crestview 44-33<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor CONVOY — The combination of a stifling defense and fourth quarter bench play by Maddix Crutchfield helped Van Wert defeat county rival Crestview 47-39 at Ray Etzler Gymnasium on Tuesday. Trailing 34-32 to start the fourth quarter, the Cougars held Crestview scoreless for most of the period and Crutchfield scored seven of […]<\/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-151353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 11:11:09","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\/151353","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=151353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}