{"id":162422,"date":"2023-01-25T04:37:51","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T09:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=162422"},"modified":"2023-01-25T04:37:52","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T09:37:52","slug":"vw-cougars-pull-away-from-parkway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2023\/01\/25\/vw-cougars-pull-away-from-parkway\/","title":{"rendered":"VW Cougars pull away from Parkway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

After a pair of two point losses over the weekend, Van Wert was looking for a bounce back victory and the Cougars got one Tuesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind a rugged defense and 21 points by Aidan Pratt, Van Wert defeated Parkway 64-45 at the Cougars Den. The win improved Van Wert\u2019s record to 9-6, while Parkway fell to 5-11 on the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Van Wert senior guard Nate Phillips scored 15 points against Parkway. Bob Barnes\/file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Parkway\u2019s Landon May scored six points in the opening quarter but Pratt scored eight points, while Nate Phillips added five. Carson Smith closed the period with a half court shot that beat the buzzer and gave the Cougars a 18-11 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert stretched the lead to 30-18 more than midway through the second quarter but five straight points by Trevor Sterns helped Parkway close the gap to 30-23 at halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe guys saw the floor very well especially against some zones that we haven\u2019t seen this year, but they had the willingness to share the ball and find the open spots and execute from there,\u201d Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. \u201cWe got contributions from lots of different guys tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke Wessell scored seven of his nine points in the third quarter, including a layup that capped a 9-0 start to the quarter and gave Van Wert a 39-23 lead. Meanwhile, the Cougars held Parkway to just seven points in the period, including a pair of baskets by Trent Rollins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillips added seven points of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, Pratt had a two-handed slam bunk and AJ Proffitt and Conner Campbell came off the bench and each hit triples. The Cougars finished 23-of-48 from the floor and a season best 11-of-13 from the foul line with 21 rebounds and just three turnovers. Parkway was 19-of-37 shooting and 5-of-7 from the foul line with 20 rebounds and 16 turnovers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat pleases us most is our second half defense,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cIn the first half we did some things correctly most of the way but we didn\u2019t complete our objectives. In the second half we did a really good job of forcing Parkway into taking some tough shots or forcing them to their weaknesses which ultimately led to some missed shots and turnovers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parkway will play at No. 8 Marion Local on Friday while the Cougars will travel to Shawnee the same night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen Shawnee twice this year and when they\u2019re on they\u2019re on,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cBoth times I saw them they scored over 70 points. We\u2019ll have our work cut out for us \u2013 they\u2019ve had their highs and lows but they have a good group of guys who can play basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Van Wert 18 12 13 21 \u2013 64
Parkway 11 12 7 15 \u2013 45<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert: 6-1-15; AJ Proffitt 1-0-3; Luke Wessell 4-1-9; Carson Smith 3-2-9; Garett Gunter 2-0-4; Aidan Pratt 7-7-21; Conner Campbell 1-0-3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parkway: Trevor Stearns 5-1-11; Brayden Bruns 1-0-3; Fletcher Smith 1-1-3; Landon May 6-1-13; Caiden Berry 2-2-7; Trent Rollins 4-0-8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV: Parkway 41-29<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor After a pair of two point losses over the weekend, Van Wert was looking for a bounce back victory and the Cougars got one Tuesday night. Behind a rugged defense and 21 points by Aidan Pratt, Van Wert defeated Parkway 64-45 at the Cougars Den. The win improved Van Wert\u2019s record to […]<\/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-162422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 05:15:25","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\/162422","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=162422"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162432,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162422\/revisions\/162432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}