{"id":162647,"date":"2023-02-01T04:40:11","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T09:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=162647"},"modified":"2023-02-01T04:40:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T09:40:12","slug":"cougars-fall-in-back-and-forth-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2023\/02\/01\/cougars-fall-in-back-and-forth-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars fall in back and forth game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Tuesday night\u2019s game between Van Wert and Delphos St. John\u2019s certainly had its ups and downs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind eight points by Aidan Pratt and a pair of baskets each by Nate Phillips and Garett Gunter, the Cougars raced out to a 16-7 lead after one quarter, and a bucket by Pratt with five minutes left in the second quarter put Van Wert ahead 22-9. Pratt went on to finish with a team high 21 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Garett Gunter (10) goes to the basket for two of his 13 points vs. Delphos St. John’s. Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe game was kind of a roller coaster,\u201d Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said. \u201cWe started off really well then we got down then we fought back into it and once again, that\u2019s the resiliency of our guys. I was hoping the outcome would be different but this is kind of the game I envisioned \u2013 a very close one or two possession game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Jays (12-4) responded with a 20-0 scoring run that spanned the remainder of the second quarter and the first half of the third quarter. During the second quarter portion of the run, Delphos St. John\u2019s hit four consecutive triples \u2013 two by Cameron Elwer and one each by Landen Grothaus and Jack Gerker, all in the span of roughly 90 seconds. Elwer put the Blue Jays on top 23-22 at halftime, then scored the first six points of the third quarter to increase the lead to 29-22. The freshman guard went to finish with a game high 22 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars ended the scoring drought with a pair of foul shots by Pratt at the 4:12 mark of the third quarter. Van Wert ended the period on a 7-0 run, including a steal and layup by AJ Proffitt that put the Cougars ahead, 34-33 at the end of the quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert (10-7) expanded the lead to 38-33 early in the fourth quarter when Gunter scored back-to-back baskets but the Blue Jays answered the bell again with an 8-0 run, including a pair of triples by Austin Moenter, his only two baskets of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a really good two or three weeks in terms of other guys stepping up and making shots and that was no more evident than tonight,\u201d Delphos St. John\u2019s head coach Aaron Elwer said. \u201cIt\u2019s a five man unit and if we can continue to be confident and knock those shots in if they\u2019re going to pay special attention to Cameron and Landen, our guys understand (their role).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen they can put four or five shooters out on the floor and two of them are deadly from the outside \u2013 we tried to take those two away,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cI thought we did a pretty good job with a junk defense that we threw in, but credit their guys because they made one more shot than we did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars drew to within two, 44-42, on a Pratt bucket with 90 seconds left, but could draw no closer. Delphos St. John\u2019s went 4-of-5 from the free throw line in the final 45 seconds, then held on as a last second trey by the Cougars hit the rim in the closing seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert went 18-of-46 from the floor, but 0-of-9 from beyond the three point arc, and 9-of-12 from the foul line with 24 rebounds and 10 turnovers. Delphos St. John\u2019s was 17-of-48 shooting and 6-of-9 from the foul line with 23 rebounds and nine turnovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert will host Kenton on Friday while Delphos St. John\u2019s will travel to St. Henry the same night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKenton\u2019s a team that beat Coldwater, who beat us,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cKenton\u2019s a team that was up by one on St. Marys in the third quarter. They\u2019re a good team that is searching for a big win for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

St. John\u2019s 7 16 10 15 \u2013 48
Van Wert 16 6 12 13 \u2013 45<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert: Nate Phillips 2-1-5; AJ Proffitt 2-0-4; Carson Smith 1-0-2; Garett Gunter 6-1-13; Aidan Pratt 7-7-21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delphos St. John\u2019s: Landen Grothaus 3-2-11; Jack Gerker 1-0-3; Cameron Elwer 9-2-22; Austin Moenter 0-2-2; Ethan Druckemiller 2-0-4; Aaron Moenter 2-0-6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV: Delphos St. John\u2019s 48-41<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Tuesday night\u2019s game between Van Wert and Delphos St. John\u2019s certainly had its ups and downs. Behind eight points by Aidan Pratt and a pair of baskets each by Nate Phillips and Garett Gunter, the Cougars raced out to a 16-7 lead after one quarter, and a bucket by Pratt with five […]<\/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-162647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-05 20:36:47","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\/162647","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=162647"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162656,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162647\/revisions\/162656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}