{"id":186977,"date":"2024-12-04T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T05:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=186977"},"modified":"2024-12-04T00:10:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T05:10:07","slug":"blue-jays-edge-van-wert-74-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/12\/04\/blue-jays-edge-van-wert-74-73\/","title":{"rendered":"Delphos St. John’s edges Van Wert 74-73"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

All-Ohioan Cam Elwer scored 39 points but a free throw by his younger brother, Andrew Elwer, with 3.5 seconds proved to be the difference as Delphos St. John\u2019s defeated Van Wert in a thriller, 74-73, on Tuesday. The game served as the season opener for the Blue Jays (1-0), while Van Wert fell to 0-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth quarter was a seesaw battle. Delphos St. John\u2019s led by as many as six on several occasions in the period, including 67-61. A triple by Cohen Bragg made it 67-64 with 3:05 left, then Keaten Welch tied the game with a trey of his own. Welch then gave the Cougars a 69-67 lead with 1:20 left, but Cam Elwer canned a trey five seconds later to make it 70-69. Van Wert freshman Zach Crummey\u2019s offensive rebound and layup with 33 seconds left put the Cougars ahead 71-70, but a pair of Cam Elwer foul shots gave the Blue Jays a one point lead with 21.5 seconds left. Crummey scored again to tie the game 73-73, but Andrew Elwer converted the first of two free throws to win the game. Welch got off a desperation half-court shot at the buzzer but it came up short.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Van Wert’s Keaten Welch (5) drives to the basket for two of his 24 points. Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Van Wert head coach Jeremy Best noted that despite the loss, he was encouraged by a lot of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe talked after the game that that\u2019s the expectation \u2013 that\u2019s how we\u2019re going to play, that\u2019s the culture we\u2019re going to rally around,\u201d Best said. \u201cEverybody was connected again today and those are things we\u2019ve been talking to the guys about in the four or five weeks that we\u2019ve been together. I haven\u2019t gotten one cross look or mixed emotion about what we\u2019re doing \u2013 these guys have bought in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert opened the game with a quick 8-0 lead, only to see Delphos St. John\u2019s battle back and tie it 15-15 at the end of the first quarter. The Blue Jays took their first lead of the game early in the second period when Drew Boggs canned a left corner triple. The Cougars led 31-26 on a Welch bucket with 2:40 left until halftime, then took a 33-32 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cam Elwer, a 6-2 junior, took over in the third quarter by scoring 15 points, including 10 consecutive points and the Blue Jays led 54-50 entering the final period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI went and watched that kid play 5-6-7 times last year and no one\u2019s able to contain him,\u201d Best said of Elwer. \u201cWe did for some possessions and in certain scenarios but that\u2019s why he is what is \u2013 he\u2019s earned everything he\u2019s gotten. He\u2019s a tremendous player. If you guard him hard he drives by you, if you lay off he can shoot it, he\u2019s just a phenomenal player and one of the better players I\u2019ve seen come through here in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Welch scored eight points in the third quarter and Bragg added five, including a buzzer beater. The duo combined for 15 points in the fourth quarter. Welch led Van Wert with 24 points, Bragg added 16 and McCracken and Crummey each tallied 13 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe think we have some guys offensively who can help us out and some nights it\u2019s situational, we don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to step up on some nights,\u201d Best said. \u201cJust the progress in the last three days \u2013 what we improved on from Friday to tonight, I\u2019m just super proud of them because that\u2019s the expectation every time we practice, every time we put a uniform on, that\u2019s the expectation we\u2019re going to play with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars were 28-of-47 from the floor, including 9-of-12 from three point range, and 7-of-10 from the foul line. Van Wert had just seven turnovers and out-rebounded the Blue Jays 18-16. Delphos St. John\u2019s was 26-of-50 shooting and 14-of-17 from the free throw line with eight turnovers, compared to seven by Van Wert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert will host Parkway on Friday while Delphos St. John\u2019s will be home to Kalida the same night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Van Wert  15  18  17  23 \u2013 73<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. John\u2019s 15  17  22  20 \u2013 74<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert: Xavier Kelly 1-1-3; Griff McCracken 4-2-13; Keaten Welch 9-3-24; Caden Collins 1-0-2; Micah Cowan 1-0-2; Zach Crummey 6-1-13; Cohen Bragg 6-0-16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delphos St. John\u2019s: Jackson Wiechart 1-2-4; Brayden Klaus 5-1-11; Drew Boggs 2-0-6; Cam Elwer 14-7-39; Andrew Elwer 4-2-10; Easton Elwer 1-1-3; Maddox Kroeger 0-1-1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JV: Delphos St. John\u2019s 39-33<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports All-Ohioan Cam Elwer scored 39 points but a free throw by his younger brother, Andrew Elwer, with 3.5 seconds proved to be the difference as Delphos St. John\u2019s defeated Van Wert in a thriller, 74-73, on Tuesday. The game served as the season opener for the Blue Jays (1-0), while Van Wert […]<\/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-186977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 22:49:41","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\/186977","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=186977"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186993,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186977\/revisions\/186993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}