Connor Holliday (24) goes up in traffic Friday against Wapakoneta in a WBL contest won by the Redskins. (Jan Dunlap\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nVan Wert (9-11, 2-6 WBL) started off well, taking a seven-point lead, 16-9, after a period of play. But the Redskins (5-12, 2-6 WBL) rallied in the second quarter, outscoring Van Wert 18-8 to take the lead by three, 27-24, at the half.<\/p>\n
The Cougars shaved a point off the lead, getting to within a basket, 38-36, at the end of three quarters of play, but Wapak outlasted Van Wert in the final period, outscoring the Cougars 15-10 to get the upset.<\/p>\n
Connor Holliday led Van Wert with 13 points, while Michael Smelser scored 10 points and Matt Bidlack added 9 points for the Cougars. Kodi Morgan led Wapakoneta with 17 points, including four treys, while Adam Henderson scored 15 points and Corey Crawford had 11 points on the night.<\/p>\n
The Redskins also outrebounded Van Wert, 26-21, while the Cougars had fewer turnovers, 9-12.<\/p>\n
Van Wert was 17 of 57 from the field (29.8 percent), including just six treys out of 27 attempts (22.2 percent). The Cougars made 6 of 10 free throw attempts (60 percent).<\/p>\n
In contrast to Van Wert, Wapak was red hot from the field, canning 21 of 34 field goal attempts (61.8 percent), including 5 of 9 from three-point range (55.6 percent). The Redskins made only 6 of 15 from the line (40 percent).<\/p>\n
The Van Wert junior varsity team also lost, 44-32, to the Redskin JVs. Colin Smith led the JV Cougars with 13 points, while Cam Lauck was Wapak\u2019s high scorer with 12.<\/p>\n
Van Wert will host Delphos Jefferson this evening in a non-conference game, and finish out the regular and league seasons next Friday at home against St. Marys.<\/p>\n
![\"VW](\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/VW-boys-vs-Wapakoneta-boxscore-2-2014.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAVE MOSIER\/independent sports WAPAKONETA — For minutes at a time, the Van Wert Cougars\u2019 shooting was nearly as cold as it was outside the gymnasium at Wapakoneta. Van Wert\u2019s icy offense, especially from three-point range, was the difference in the game as Wapak defeated the Cougars 53-46 in a Western Buckeye League matchup played Friday. […]<\/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-48617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 08:17:02","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\/48617","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=48617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/VW-boys-vs.-Wapakoneta-2-2014-Holliday.jpg\")
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