{"id":186848,"date":"2024-11-30T00:47:14","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T05:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=186848"},"modified":"2024-12-02T08:42:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T13:42:15","slug":"sheets-leads-knights-past-van-wert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/11\/30\/sheets-leads-knights-past-van-wert\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheets leads Knights past Van Wert"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Wren Sheets turned in a dominating performance and Crestview defeated Van Wert 61-44 in the lid lifter for both teams at Van Wert High School Friday night. The loss spoiled the debut of Jeremy Best as Van Wert\u2019s head coach against his former team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheets, a 6-6 senior post player, controlled the paint and scored 31 points, including 19 in the second half. His play opened things up for Hayden Perrott, who finished with 14 points, including three treys.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Crestview’s Wren Sheets (33) scored 31 points in the season opener against Van Wert. Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI think Wren knows that this year that he needs to be very aggressive for us at the offensive end and attack the basket,\u201d Crestview head coach Doug Etzler said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to see a lot of double teams so he needs to make moves quick but he\u2019s also a very good passer for us. I was really pleased with the way he went at the basket tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought our young post player (Zach Crummey) played well tonight and I think we saw some glimpses of what he\u2019s going to be able to do as we move along here but yes, Wren\u2019s a tough matchup for anybody,\u201d Best said. \u201cHe\u2019s definitely one of the better players not just in the area but probably in Division VI.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead to start the game but a young Van Wert team stormed back to take a 14-11 lead, with Griff McCracken nailing a trey from the left corner for the go-ahead points. A bucket by Sheets with 15 seconds left made it 14-13, a score that stood at the end of the opening period. Crummey, a 6-5 freshman, accounted for six points in the quarter and went on to finish with a team high 12 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two teams seesawed back and fourth early in the second quarter. A basket by Keaten Welch gave Van Wert a 16-15 advantage, but it would turn out to be the final lead the Cougars would have all night. With Crummey forced to sit with an early second foul, Crestview went on a 12-0 run lead that pushed the score to 27-16. The Knights extended the lead to 33-18 on pair of free throws and a basket by Sheets before Van Wert\u2019s Caden Collins beat the halftime buzzer with a bucket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the first quarter they got off to a good start and then we locked in and held them to six,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cI was pleased for the most part that we gave them one shot and we made them shoot the ball off the bounce instead of just catch-and-shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the third quarter, Sheets scored 11 of Crestview\u2019s 19 points and Perrott and Tommy Heffner each drained a trey to give the Knights a 49-36 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Van Wert freshman Xavier Kelly scored all six of his points in the third period and Crummey added four points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe shared the ball and we hit some timely shots to get a little separation,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have different guys step up each night. Hayden shot well in the last scrimmage and in practice and I thought Braxton (Leeth) did a good job guarding Welch and making his possessions tough. We\u2019re going to need a little bit of everybody for us to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheets added eight more points in the fourth quarter while Van Wert had just one bucket in the period \u2013 a trey by McCracken to go along with five free throws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights finished the game 24-of-46 shooting and 11-of-17 from the free throw line with 23 rebounds and eight turnovers. Van Wert was 15-of-33 from the floor and 10-of-16 from the foul line with 17 rebounds and 11 turnovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re \u2018in the process,\u2019\u201d Best said. \u201cTrust the process \u2013 we saw spots of some really good things from our guys. I loved our effort and intensity and we were connected and I think if we can continue to build on that, the other things will get better. I think our guys are obviously very young, very youthful and that showed tonight against a team that physically had an edge in a a lot places, plus experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Van Wert’s Keaten Welch finds himself surrounded by Crestview defenders. Bob Barnes photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to find a way to overcome that and combat that because we can\u2019t use that excuse all year, that we\u2019re young,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re just going to have to keep grinding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview will return to action tonight at Miller City. It\u2019s a rematch of last year\u2019s sectional championship game, which was won by the Wildcats 48-43.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have a lot of veteran guys that played a lot of big minutes for them and they\u2019re the team that knocked us out of the tournament,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cThey\u2019re really hard to play on the road. They didn\u2019t play tonight so they\u2019re fresh and we\u2019re going to go in there a little bit tired but no excuses \u2013 we\u2019re going to have to go in there and get after it. We have to stay out of foul trouble and share the basketball on offense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert will host Delphos St. John\u2019s on Tuesday. The two teams were scheduled to meet tonight but the game was postponed due to a long football playoff run by the Blue Jays. The game will serve as the season opener for Delphos St. John\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe go from the best post player in Division VI to one of the best players in Ohio (Cam Elwer), so that\u2019s a challenge,\u201d Best said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that we have an answer for that right now but we\u2019ll get ready and accept the challenge. I know he\u2019s a tremendous player \u2013 I\u2019ve watched several times over the last several years just as a basketball fan so now I have to prepare for him as a coach. They\u2019re a well coached team, an established program and it\u2019ll be a tough one for us but we\u2019ll come and play hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Cougars 14   6  16   8 \u2013 44<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knights  13 17  19  12 \u2013 61<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert: Xavier Kelly 2-1-6; Griff McCracken 3-0-9; Keaten Welch 3-5-11; Caden Collins 2-0-4; Micah Cowan 1-0-2; Zach Crummey 4-4-12<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview: Hayden Perrott 5-1-14; Liam Putman 1-0-2; Tommy Heffner 3-3-10; Will Sheets 2-0-4; Wren Sheets 11-9-31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV: Crestview 46-25<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports Wren Sheets turned in a dominating performance and Crestview defeated Van Wert 61-44 in the lid lifter for both teams at Van Wert High School Friday night. The loss spoiled the debut of Jeremy Best as Van Wert\u2019s head coach against his former team. Sheets, a 6-6 senior post player, controlled the […]<\/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-186848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 06:42:14","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\/186848","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=186848"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186911,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186848\/revisions\/186911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}