{"id":83571,"date":"2017-01-19T08:15:07","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T13:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=83571"},"modified":"2017-01-19T08:20:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T13:20:23","slug":"local-boys-cage-teams-seek-to-improve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/01\/19\/local-boys-cage-teams-seek-to-improve\/","title":{"rendered":"Local boys’ cage teams seek to improve"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It\u2019s the halfway point of the 2016-2017 boys high school basketball regular season, and it\u2019s been an interesting one, with close games, buzzer beaters, and upsets.<\/p>\n

The Van Wert Cougars (6-5, 1-2 Western Buckeye League) have seen their share of ups and downs. The Cougars have lost two overtime games, including one to state-ranked Ottawa-Glandorf, but have notched impressive victories over teams such as Upper Scioto Valley, Lima Perry, Crestview, and Marion Local. Those teams have a combined record of 32-13.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our team is highly competitive,\u201d head coach Mark Bagley said. \u201cWe\u2019ve already won as many regular season games as we did all of last regular season, and we have improved tremendously since the Lincolnview game (season opener).<\/p>\n

\"Basketball\"Through 11 games, Jacoby Kelly and Nate Place have been the scoring leaders for the Cougars, averaging 16.7 and 15.9 points per game, respectively. Dylan Lautzenheiser averages 9.3 points per game, and is the team leader in rebounds, averaging 6.7 per game.<\/p>\n

As a team, the Cougars are averaging 59 points per game, while giving up 55.3.<\/p>\n

While eyeing the second half of the schedule, Bagley said free throw shooting needs to improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our five losses, we\u2019re shooting 45 percent, and in our six wins we\u2019re shooting 75 percent from the line,\u201d Bagley said. \u201cPart of that is because we\u2019re a young team that\u2019s experiencing a lot of close games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bagley admitted there were big question marks entering the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cJacoby Kelly was our only proven player and we knew Dylan (Lautzenheiser) would be a glue guy,\u201d Bagley explained. \u201cOur three sophomores, Nate Place, Blake Henry, and Drew Bagley, have played very well for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThree seniors, Austin Sudduth, Nick Gutierrez, and Matt Reichert, have accepted their roles,\u201d Bagley added.<\/p>\n

The Cougars will host Kenton tomorrow night, and Bryan on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Lincolnview Lancers (5-7, 1-2 Northwest Conference) tipped off the second half of their regular season with last Saturday\u2019s 55-53 upset victory over Miller City.<\/p>\n

After graduating key starters from last year\u2019s state runner-up team, head coach Brett Hammons believes the biggest challenge so far has been getting other players ready for the varsity level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be a big jump from freshman or JV to varsity,\u201d Hammons said. \u201cGetting the players accustomed to my coaching style and what is expected of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel the players are making great progress with this, and I have been very pleased with how smoothly they have transitioned and picked up the game,\u201d Hammons added.<\/p>\n

Hammons also said he\u2019s pleased with the effort given by the Lancers, but he\u2019s looking for continued improvement on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though they are playing hard we have to be smarter with our decision making on both ends of the floor,\u201d Hammons said. \u201cWe also need to keep improving our communication throughout the entire game and not in spurts, and we need to continue to improve our rebounding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincolnview has three players averaging double digits\u2013-Caden Ringwald (12.8 ppg), Ryan Rager (11.6 ppg) and Chayten Overholt (10.0 ppg).\u00a0 Ethan Kemler averages 9.1 points per game.<\/p>\n

Rager leads the team in rebounding (4.6 per game), while Kemler averages 3.6 per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have leaders starting to emerge that we didn\u2019t have earlier in the year,\u201d Hammons said.<\/p>\n

The Lancers will host Columbus Grove tomorrow night and Antwerp Saturday.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going to watch the Crestview Knights, don\u2019t plan on leaving before the final buzzer. That\u2019s because seven of Crestview\u2019s 10 games have come down to the wire and have been decided by four points or less, including back-to-back one-point wins last weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have won four of those seven games,\u201d head coach Jeremy Best explained. \u201cWe are getting better at understanding that each possession of the game has value, and these possessions usually show up in close games at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crestview\u2019s three losses have come by a combined total of eight points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been consistently inconsistent, and we need to develop some consistency in our performance,\u201d Best said. \u201cWe believe this will improve with more experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best also noted the Knights have faced many challenges, including a late start due to an extended football playoff run, injuries, new roles, and youth.<\/p>\n

Javin Etzler (16.2 points per game) is Crestview\u2019s leading scorer, while Derek Stout is averaging 11.2 points per game and Drew Kline 9.5 points per game.\u00a0Overall, the Knights are averaging 52.7 points per game, while giving up just 45.1.<\/p>\n

Etzler leads the team in rebounding (7.5 rpg), while Kline leads in assists (6 per game).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to put our trust in the process and have all players focused on team improvement,\u201d Best said.<\/p>\n

The Knights (7-3, 3-0 NWC) will officially hit the halfway point of the regular season schedule this Friday at Lima Central Catholic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports It\u2019s the halfway point of the 2016-2017 boys high school basketball regular season, and it\u2019s been an interesting one, with close games, buzzer beaters, and upsets. The Van Wert Cougars (6-5, 1-2 Western Buckeye League) have seen their share of ups and downs. The Cougars have lost two overtime games, including one […]<\/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-83571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 03:49:57","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\/83571","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=83571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}