Cougars start fast in win over Celina

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

Van Wert scored early and often and went on to defeat visiting Celina 64-45 on Friday night.

The Cougars (11-9, 5-3 WBL) jumped out to a whopping 27-12 first quarter lead with Owen Treece accounting for seven points, Nate Place and LeTrey Williams scoring six each and Blake Henry adding five. Corbin Murphy scored eight of Celina’s points in the period.

“It was real important and I thought the locker room back home after the St. Henry game was crucial for our guys,” Bagley said of the high scoring first quarter. “We spent a lot of time in there, kind of pressing the reset button on what happened Saturday night, putting our focus on the tournament draw then vowing to each other that we were going to work as hard as we possibly can for the next two weeks.”

“We had a great week of practice and I expected a good start, but I didn’t expect 27-12 after one quarter. It was a pleasant surprise.”

The pace slowed a bit in the second quarter, with Williams scoring five of Van Wert’s 11 points in the period. Already leading 38-23 to start the third period, Drew Bagley scored seven of his game high 16 points to help give the Cougars a 55-37 lead, then the 6-4 senior added five more points in the final quarter.

After Bagley, Place scored 12 points, Williams finished with 11 and Treece and Henry each scored nine.

“Essentially we had five guys in double figures tonight and that is absolutely huge for our guys to be balanced, so when you go 16, 12, 11, nine, nine, that to me is when we’re at our best and we’re hard to guard,” the elder Bagley said.

Brandon Yenser led the Bulldogs (5-15, 3-5 WBL) with 11 points.

The Cougars finished 24 of 42 (57 percent) from the floor, 9 of 10 from the foul line and had 23 rebounds and 10 turnovers. Celina was 15 of 51 shooting (29 percent), 7 of 11 from the free throw line and finished with 18 rebounds and six turnovers.

Van Wert will host Lima Central Catholic on Tuesday then will close the regular season at Defiance on Friday.

“We purposely set our schedule this way, knowing that the tournament could be a Tuesday-Friday type of thing,” Bagley said. “We are now on what I call a tournament practice schedule, so that’s huge.”

Scoring summary

Van Wert 27 11 17 9 – 66
Celina 12 10 15 8 – 45

Van Wert: Owen Treece 3-2-9; Nate Place 6-0-12; Tanner Barnhart 1-0-2; LeTrey Williams 4-0-11; Blake Henry 3-2-9; Lawson Blackmore 1-1-3; Jake Hilleary 1-0-2; Drew Bagley 5-4-16

Celina: Brett Schwieterman 3-0-7; Austin Okeley 2-1-5; Josh Kuehne 1-0-2; Austin Cotterman 2-2-6; Kastan Eichenauer 1-0-3; Brandon Yenser 4-3-11; Corbin Murphy 4-0-8; Drake Langenkamp 1-1-3

JV: Van Wert 38-28