The Van Wert County Courthouse

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

Lady Cougars fall to Spencerville 55-37

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

Inconsistent shooting by Van Wert, along with a pair of late quarter scoring runs by Spencerville plagued the Lady Cougars in a 55-37 non-conference loss to the Lady Bearcats on Monday.

Van Wert dropped to 1-4, while Spencerville improved to 5-0 on the season.

Sierra Shaffer (2) drives to the basket for two of her eight points against Spencerville. Photo courtesy of Jerry Mason

“We don’t shoot the ball well,” Van Wert head coach Rob Adams said. “If we’re not shooting the ball well we’re not going to win games.”

“I’ll have to watch the film, but that’s been our Achilles heel. You can’t fault the girls’ effort, but we’re just having mental lapses. We did show improvement tonight, but it’s not enough. We’re going to keep fighting, because that’s all we can do.”

Spencerville jumped out to a 12-2 first quarter lead before a trey by Jaylyn Rickard and a bucket by Jerica Huebner helped close the gap to 14-7 at the end of the period.

The Lady Bearcats pushed the lead to 19-9 at the 5:50 mark of the second quarter, before a free throw by Caylee Phillips and baskets Sierra Shaffer and Carly Smith made it a 19-14 game. However, Spencerville scored the final six points of the quarter on buckets by Alex Carter, Nelaya Burden and Emma Leis, giving the visitors a 25-14 halftime advantage. Burden went on to finish with a game high 18 points, while Leis finished with 10.

Carter went to work early in the third quarter, scoring two quick baskets to increase the lead to 29-14, and the 6-4 senior went on to tally 14 points. Later in the period, Van Wert trimmed the deficit to 37-28 on buckets by Smith, Shaffer and Allison Schaufelberger, but Spencerville responded with a 7-0 run, including a buzzer beating three pointer by Gillian Goecke to close the quarter.

The closest Van Wert could get in the fourth quarter was 13 points.

Abby Jackson led the Lady Cougars with nine points, followed by Shaffer’s eight.

“We ran out of gas and we were a little short on the bench,” Adams said. “Their three point shooting hurt us a little a bit. They knocked down some outside shots and we’re still trying to find it from the outside.”

Spencerville hit six treys in the game, while Van Wert hit two from beyond the arc, and the Lady Bearcats enjoyed a 30-23 rebounding advantage. The Lady Cougars committed just 10 turnovers, compared to 19 for Spencerville.

Van Wert missed the services of Reagan Priest, who’s out with a leg injury.

“You lose a senior who provides a spark and a little bit more length (it hurts), the coach explained. “But we can’t worry about who’s not playing, we have to worry about who’s in front of us, and it’s kind of a next girl up mentality.”

“Our motto going forward is how do we be tougher and how do we get over these mental lapses,” Adams added. “This team is resilient and I think we’ll be fine down the stretch, we just need to find some offense.”

Van Wert will play at Wapakoneta on Thursday.

Scoring summary:

Van Wert        7   7 14   9 – 37
Spencerville 14 11 19 11 – 55

Van Wert: Sierra Shaffer 4-0-8; Alexis Metz 1-0-3; Carly Smith 2-0-4; Jaylyn Rickard 3-0-7; Caylee Phillips 0-2-2; Jerica Huebner 1-0-2; Allison Schaufelberger 1-0-2; Abby Jackson 2-5-9

Spencerville: Gillian Goecke 2-0-6; Kelsey Shaffer 2-0-6; Abbygayle Satterfield 0-1-1; Nelaya Burden 6-4-18; Emma Leis 4-2-10; Alex Carter 7-0-14

JV: Spencerville 43-40

POSTED: 12/11/18 at 6:10 am. FILED UNDER: Sports