VW Cougars defeat Bath for win No. 10

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

LIMA — The Van Wert Cougars pulled away in the fourth quarter and earned their seventh consecutive victory with a hard fought 55-46 Western Buckeye League road win over Bath on Friday night.

Van Wert (10-7, 4-3 WBL) led 35-34 to begin the final period, and an early layup by Nate Place increased the lead to 37-34. Back-to-back buckets by Bath’s Chad Frey gave the Wildcats (7-12, 1-6) a 38-37 lead.

Van Wert then scored seven unanswered points that gave the Cougars the lead for good. Jacoby Kelly drained a trey, Place added a basket then Kelly scored again to make it 45-38. Frey connected from floor, but Drew Bagley and Kelly answered with buckets to stretch Van Wert’s advantage to 49-40. From there the two teams traded scores, with Bagley adding another basket and Kelly hitting a bucket and two foul shots.

Place finished with 18 points, Bagley had 15 and Kelly scored 14, with 11 coming in the final period.

“Jacoby struggled through three quarters but he kind of carried us in the fourth quarter and he really played well down the stretch,” Van Wert head coach Mark Bagley said. “Nate made some big shots and Drew made some big shots as well.”

“We were able to get some separation which was key on the road in our league, because it’s tough to win on the road in the WBL,” Bagley added.

Van Wert started the game slowly and didn’t score until more than halfway through the first quarter, when Place connected from the floor. Jonathan Lee followed up with a bucket the Place drilled a triple to give the Cougars a 7-2 lead with 1:40 left in the period. Bath’s Devon Kinyon answered with a trey of his own but Place responded with another three pointer to make it 10-7. The Wildcats scored twice more before the buzzer and trailed 10-9 at the end of the quarter.

Kinyon hit two foul shots to give Bath an early 12-10 second quarter advantage, but Van Wert came back with a 9-0 run. Bagley hit consecutive baskets, then Place’s basket and third trey of the first half gave the Cougars a 19-12 lead with five minutes left until halftime. The Wildcats would close the quarter on an 11-4 run that tied the game at 23 after two quarters.

Bagley hit a bucket and free throw to open third quarter scoring, but Bath’s Harrison Gough countered with a basket to keep the Wildcats within one, 26-25. Owen Treece, Bagley and Blake Henry each added baskets for the Cougars, and Kelly scored his first points of the game with two foul shots late in the period. Frey’s bucket and a free throw by Kinyon left Bath down by one entering the fourth quarter.

Van Wert will host St. Henry (16-3, 6-1 MAC, No. 5 in Division IV) tonight. Kelly needs six points to hit 1,000 for his career.

Scoring summary:

Bath             9 14 11 12 46
Van Wert    10 12 12 20 55

Bath: Harrison Gough 2-0-4; Devon Kinyon 5–2-12; Steven Shook 1-1-3; Chad Frey 7-2-17; Will Clark 4-0-10

Van Wert: Nate Place 7-0-18; Jacoby Kelly 5-3-14; Owen Treece 1-0-2; Blake Henry 2-0-4; Drew Bagley 7-1-15; Jonathan Lee 1-0-2

JV: Van Wert 46-33