{"id":202575,"date":"2026-02-11T10:33:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=202575"},"modified":"2026-02-11T10:33:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:33:45","slug":"cougars-in-search-of-wbl-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/02\/11\/cougars-in-search-of-wbl-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars in search of WBL championship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

To say the atmosphere should be electric may be an understatement. Many people have dubbed it the \u201cWBL championship game\u201d and in many respects it is, as Van Wert (15-4, 7-0 WBL) will welcome in defending league champion Shawnee (15-5, 7-0 WBL) Friday night. The winner will clinch at least a share of the WBL title with one week left to go in the regular season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Shawnee won last last year\u2019s league title outright, Van Wert\u2019s last WBL boys basketball championship came during the 2006-2007 season.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Point guard Xavier Kelly (2) leads a balance Van Wert offense. Bob Barnes photos<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Last season, Van Wert was fourth in the league standings with a very young starting lineup \u2013 all underclassmen, including two freshmen, and many believed the Cougars would make a jump this season. How big the jump would be was unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were 5-4 in the WBL last year and were a few possessions away from possibly winning a couple more,\u201d Van Wert head coach Jeremy Best said.  \u201cWe are keeping the same mindset and approach we’ve had all year, and that the Shawnee game is the biggest WBL game of the year for us, because it is the next game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key piece to the league title chase was last week\u2019s win at Ottawa-Glandorf. Van Wert hadn\u2019t won at the Supreme Court since the 1989-90 season. The Cougars controlled the first and third quarters of Friday\u2019s game, dealt with some foul trouble and converted nine straight free throw attempts late in the fourth quarter to come away with a 61-51 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert opened the season with three straight wins then dropped back-to-back games, 49-44 at Kalida and 79-45 to Delphos St. John\u2019s, putting the Cougars at 3-2. What followed was a tough 42-40 overtime win at Bath, then a 73-42 win over Springfield, a pair of victories that seemed to get the Cougars back on track. From there, Van Wert won 12 of 13 games, with the only loss coming to Division VI No. 1 Marion Local.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur guys have been coachable since Day No. 1,\u201d Best said. They are invested in trusting the daily process and come to practice every day with the right mindset. They enjoy competing, and they genuinely care about each other. We’ve had really good balance all year on the offensive end, and we have been diverse enough at times defensively to hide our weaknesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The balance mentioned by Best comes in the form of sophomore guard Xavier Kelly (11.7 points per game), sophomore post player Zach Crummey (11.6 points, 8.1 rebounds per game), junior guard Keaten Welch (10.3 points per game), junior wing Cohen Bragg (8.9 points per game) and senior guard Griffin McCracken (8.5 points per game).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have five threats who can hurt you in a multitude of ways,\u201d Shawnee head coach Mark Triplett said. \u201cThey play extremely well together – trust one another – and play for one another. They are a hungry team who is getting better and better as the season progresses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will have our hands full on Friday night,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Van Wert, most of Shawnee\u2019s losses have come to formidable foes \u2013 Lima Central Catholic, Hilliard Bradley, Delphos St. John\u2019s, St. Henry and Lima Sr. It\u2019s no secret that things run through the brothers Bertke \u2013 6-7  senior forward Beckett Bertke (21 points per game, 10.1 rebounds per game), who has committed to play basketball at the University of Findlay, and 607 junior guard Trevick Bertke (18.5 ppg, 8.1 rebounds per game). The Indians average 66 points per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShawnee is a matchup nightmare for many teams, including us,\u201d Best said. \u201cThe Bertke brothers are always open, and they are both special talents. In addition, the role players on this Shawnee team have been great at playing their roles very well and complement the Bertke brothers nicely.  Coach Triplett always has his team prepared, and they are the defending champions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presale tickets for Friday\u2019s game will be sold in the high school athletic office from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. The game will air live on WERT 1220AM\/104.3FM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it won\u2019t count in the league standings, the Coguars will host another talented opponent Saturday night, one that\u2019s new to the schedule \u2013 Spencerville, with brothers Will and Owen Sensabaugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Friday, Van Wert will travel to Kenton for the regular season finale, while Shawnee will host Ottawa-Glandorf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports To say the atmosphere should be electric may be an understatement. Many people have dubbed it the \u201cWBL championship game\u201d and in many respects it is, as Van Wert (15-4, 7-0 WBL) will welcome in defending league champion Shawnee (15-5, 7-0 WBL) Friday night. The winner will clinch at least a share […]<\/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-202575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 23:26:26","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\/202575","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=202575"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202582,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202575\/revisions\/202582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}