Cold shooting hurts VW in loss to Shawnee

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

Sometimes the ball just won’t go through the hoop and unfortunately, Thursday night was one of those games for Van Wert.

The Lady Cougars (3-11, 0-5 WBL) struggled from the floor and with turnovers throughout the game and fell to visiting Shawnee 44-33.

“I can’t fault the effort,” Van Wert head coach Rob Adams said. “We play hard most games but offensively – it’s just take care of the ball. We had multiple opportunities and just got ahead of ourselves, and that’s kind of been our thing all season long.”

“These are the ones you have to get, especially on your home court,” Adams continued. “Our defense is rock solid, I love our defensive tenacity – we’re getting after people, but it’s our offensive identity – we’re still struggling with that, but hopefully we can figure some things out in practice.”

Van Wert trailed 13-8 after the first quarter and 19-17 at halftime. Caylee Phillips tied the game 19-19 early in the third period, but Shawnee scored the next seven points, including back-to-back triples by Tessa Jordan and Grace O’Connor to take a 26-19 lead.

The Lady Cougars trailed 30-21 to begin the fourth quarter and chipped away at Shawnee’s lead. A bucket by Abby Jackson, a pair of foul shots by Jerica Huebner and another basket by Jackson pulled Van Wert to within two, 35-33 with 1:42 left.

The Lady Cougars had a chance to tie the game a short time later, but missed three consecutive shots, including two off offensive rebounds.

“I think at that point if that goes down the momentum swings a little bit and once we didn’t get that opportunity, the wind went out of the sails and some heads started going down and we started trying to do everything by ourselves,” Adams said.

From there, Shawnee (3-12, 2-3 WBL) scored the final nine points of the game, including four foul shots and a basket and trey by Aaliyah Fowler.

Despite being in foul trouble much of the night, Jackson led Van Wert with 10 points, and Allison Schaufelberger provided solid relief.

“She’s been playing really well for three or four games now,” Adams said of Schaufelberger. “I’m proud of Alli and she knows that, and she’s going to continue to get better as a sophomore.”

Van Wert will host county rival Crestview on Monday.

Scoring summary

Van Wert 8 9 4 12 – 33
Shawnee 13 6 11 14 – 44

Van Wert: Sierra Shaffer 2-0-4; Jaylyn Rickard 1-0-3; Reagan Priest 2-0-4; Caylee Phillips 4-0-8; Jerica Huebner 0-2-2; Allison Schaufelberger 1-0-2; Abby Jackson 5-0-10

Shawnee: Grace O’Connor 2-3-9; Aaliyah Fowler 3-0-8; Tessa Jordan 3-4-12; Kerri Robinson 1-1-4; Trinity Gearing 2-2-6; Maddi Peterman 2-1-5

JV: Shawnee won 35-33