{"id":188157,"date":"2025-01-05T21:33:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T02:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=188157"},"modified":"2025-01-05T21:33:03","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T02:33:03","slug":"duo-leads-van-wert-past-lincolnview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/01\/05\/duo-leads-van-wert-past-lincolnview\/","title":{"rendered":"Duo leads Van Wert past Lincolnview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Two Van Wert freshmen put on quite a show Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xavier Kelly and Zach Crummey teamed up to score 38 points and the duo led the Cougars to a 66-54 win over Lincolnview in the second game of a varsity girls\/boys doubleheader at Lincolnview High School. The two games were part of the seventh consecutive \u201cHuman Trafficking Awareness\u201d event put on by the YWCA of Van Wert County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crummey, a 6-5 post player, scored six of his 14 points in the opening quarter and the Cougars led 14-10 at the end of the period. Kreston Tow and Max Hammons each led Lincolnview with a trey in the opening quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Lincolnview’s Max Hammons (2) tries to drive by Van Wert’s Zach Crummey (left) and Griff McCracken (3). Photo courtesy of Hanna Young<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the second quarter, Kelly went to work, scoring three baskets, while Keaten Welch added five points. A trey by Welch gave Van Wert a 29-19 lead with 2:45 left until halftime. A pair of foul shots by Chayse Overholt and Gavin Evans closed the gap to 29-24, but Kelly scored the final two baskets of the period, giving Van Wert a 33-24 halftime lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was nice to see \u2013 the floor opened up a little bit for \u2018X\u2019 and he\u2019s an explosive young player,\u201d Van Wert head coach Jeremy Best. \u201cAnything that he can do positive is going to continue to build his confidence and the rest of our team\u2019s confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kreston Tow opened the third quarter with a trey, but Griff McCracken countered with one of his own, then Kelly added a bucket to push the lead to 39-29. He added a pair of free throws and another basket late in the period, but a triple by Hammons pulled Lincolnview to within five, 47-42 at the end of the quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe has the ball in his hands a lot and he does a great job taking care of it,\u201d Hammons said of the younger Hammons. \u201cHe get pressured in a lot of the games and he battles. He can score, he does a good job of passing it for us and along with the rest of the kids, they\u2019re going to stick their nose in there and try to be as physical as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know we\u2019re not the tallest team out there but we\u2019re going to continue to work and battle and fight and try to figure out ways we can try to get some of these wins,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelly, who finished with a game high 24 points, opened the fourth quarter scoring with an offensive rebound and basket, then Caden Collins turned a steal into an easy layup and a 51-42 lead. Later, a trey by McCracken turned out to be the dagger, as the Cougars went up by double digits, 56-45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe fought but we just made too many mistakes,\u201d Hammons said. \u201cWith three minutes to go it was still a seven point basketball game\u2026we had our opportunities but we had turnovers and we just weren\u2019t able to capitalize when we were able to stop them. It felt like we could make a run but we had a couple of turnovers and they hit back-to-back threes and it hurt us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur guys are going to battle no matter who they\u2019re playing and I\u2019m proud of our effort but we have to be better on the defensive end and try to get more stops make shots when they\u2019re available for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert finished the game 26-of-54 from the floor and 10-of-18 from the foul line, compared to 18-of-39 shooting and 11-of-17 from the free throw line by Lincolnview. The Cougars had a sizable rebounding advantage, 31-15, and committed just four turnovers, while the Lancers had 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Kelly\u2019s 24 points and Crummey\u2019s 14, Keaten Welch added 11 points, while McCracken added nine. Cohen Bragg offered a sold all-around contribution and Best said he\u2019s pleased with how his starting five has settled in after 11 games, along with the bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you have a starting five, it\u2019s not who starts, it\u2019s who finishes the game in some situations but our guys on the bench are bringing in energy,\u201d Best said. \u201cOur guys are with us \u2013 I don\u2019t think we have one selfish kid on this team. They\u2019re young, they\u2019re inexperienced, they\u2019re fun to be around and they\u2019ve come so far. We have to finish games and tonight we got a finish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of steering the ship but I told the guys it\u2019s their team,\u201d he continued. \u201cI\u2019m looking for leaders and I don\u2019t care how old they are, I want someone who feels confident in leading us when the game is being played.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Box teams will play on the road Friday night, with Van Wert at Defiance and Lincolnview at Spencerville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Cougars  14  19  14  19 \u2013 66<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lancers  10  14  18  12  \u2013 54<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert:<\/strong> Xavier Kelly 9-5-24; Griff McCracken 3-1-9; Keaten Welch 3-4-11;  Caden Collins 2-0-4; Zach Crummey 7-0-14; Cohen Bragg 2-0-4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lincolnview:<\/strong> Kreston Tow 4-0-10; Max Hammons 6-2-17; Holden Price 0-4-4; Zander Coil 1-0-2; Gavin Evans 2-2-6; Chayse Overholt 4-3-13; Kody Hamilton 1-0-2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports Two Van Wert freshmen put on quite a show Saturday night. Xavier Kelly and Zach Crummey teamed up to score 38 points and the duo led the Cougars to a 66-54 win over Lincolnview in the second game of a varsity girls\/boys doubleheader at Lincolnview High School. The two games were part […]<\/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-188157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 19:03:55","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\/188157","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=188157"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188176,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188157\/revisions\/188176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}