{"id":176380,"date":"2024-02-28T04:45:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T09:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=176380"},"modified":"2024-02-28T04:45:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T09:45:58","slug":"celina-ends-van-werts-season-61-41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/02\/28\/celina-ends-van-werts-season-61-41\/","title":{"rendered":"Celina ends Van Wert’s season 61-41"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

CELINA — Van Wert stayed with Celina for three quarters, but things quickly changed during Tuesday\u2019s Division II sectional semifinal at the Celina Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. 10 seed Van Wert trailed by just three, 40-37, but Celina\u2019s Braylon Gabes ended the third quarter with a trey that sparked a big scoring run and a 61-41 victory by the seventh seeded Bulldogs (13-10). The loss ended Van Wert\u2019s season at 4-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat basket at the end of the third quarter \u2013 I don\u2019t want to say it was a backbreaker \u2013 but it kind of shifted the momentum of the game,\u201d Van Wert head coach Ben Laudick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kaden Shaffer played his final basketball game for Van Wert on Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Monica Campbell<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Caleb Gabes opened the fourth quarter with a triple then seconds later, Grant Duncan converted a pair of foul shots that extended Celina\u2019s lead to 48-37 less than a minute into the period. The lead steadily grew to as many as 22, as the Bulldogs finished the game on a 21-4 scoring jaunt. The Cougars didn\u2019t score until the 2:29 mark, when Colin Haggerty put in a short jumper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCredit Celina for making some shots down the stretch,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cI felt like it was Groundhog Day, where we got a bunch of good looks but nothing went in and the other team got a bunch of good looks that went in. It\u2019s a tough way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite foul trouble in the first half, Braylon Gabes finished with 21 points and Caleb Gables added 20 points for the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celina led 12-10 after one quarter, with Braylon Gabes scoring on an offensive rebound and putback at the buzzer. Van Wert briefly led late in the second quarter, 20-19, but the Bulldogs claimed a 24-22 lead at halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conner Campbell scored 11 of Van Wert\u2019s 15 third quarter points. He went on to lead the Cougars with 18 points, including a pair of slam dunks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we executed the game plan for three quarters, almost to perfection,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cWe took away some of the things they wanted to do and obviously they countered with some things but we made some adjustments at halftime. It\u2019s a credit our guys \u2013 they bought in, they got knocked down a couple of times and they got back up and that\u2019s kind of been our M.O., but we just couldn\u2019t make shots in the fourth quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert finished the game 13-of-42 from the floor, including just 1-of-17 from three point range. The Cougars connected on 9-of-11 foul shots, all in the first half and had 20 rebounds. Celina hit 23-of-48 shots and 10-of-14 free throws and had 24 rebounds. Both teams finished with 10 turnovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game was the final one for five seniors \u2013 Campbell, Haggerty, Kaden Shaffer, Rylan Miller and Gage Stemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a special, special group,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cSome people are going to say they only won four games but they continued to come to work every day with a workmanlike attitude to get better, to continue to claw and find ways to get better and to win. My message to them was if they take those qualities with them in the game of life they\u2019re going to be successful because life is tough\u2026you never know what\u2019s around the corner and you\u2019re going to get knocked down and you have to get back up.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach year you say goodbye to another group of seniors that kind of tears at your heartstrings a little bit, it kind of leaves a hole in your heart but at the same time, I\u2019m one of their biggest fans and they\u2019re going to go out and do great things,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celina will play at No. 3 seed Shawnee for the sectional championship Friday night. Shawnee won the regular season matchup between the two teams, 53-46. The Indians had a first round bye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Bulldogs 12 12 19 18 \u2013 61
Cougars 10 12 15 4 \u2013 41<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celina: Caleb Gabes 8-3-20; Braylon Gabes 9-1-21; Grant Duncan 2-1-5; Lennon Cisco 1-1-4; Kaiden Werntz 3-0-7; Jake Knapke 0-2-2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert: Kaden Shaffer 1-0-3; Conner Campbell 8-1-18; Rylan Miller 2-0-4; Keaten Welch 2-5-9; Cohen Bragg 0-2-2; Colin Haggerty 2-1-5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor CELINA — Van Wert stayed with Celina for three quarters, but things quickly changed during Tuesday\u2019s Division II sectional semifinal at the Celina Fieldhouse. No. 10 seed Van Wert trailed by just three, 40-37, but Celina\u2019s Braylon Gabes ended the third quarter with a trey that sparked a big scoring run and […]<\/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-176380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 14:44:56","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\/176380","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=176380"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176384,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176380\/revisions\/176384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}