Cats vs. Dogs: Van Wert tops Defiance

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

DEFIANCE — Van Wert built up a nine point halftime lead, saw it slip away, then rallied for a 67–58 Western Buckeye League win over Defiance in the regular season finale for the Cougars on Friday.

Owen Treece led the way for Van Wert with 21 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter. Nate Place finished with 17 points, Drew Bagley had 15 and Blake Henry tallied 10 for the Cougars.

Treece hit two of his four treys in the opening quarter and Van Wert led 12-11 entering the second period. Van Wert outscored the Bulldogs 19-11 during the ensuing quarter with Place scoring 11 of his points in the quarter and the Cougars enjoyed a 31-22 halftime advantage. Defiance’s DJ Dobson scored 10 of his 19 points in the period.

“I thought we had great balance and I thought we took control of the game before halftime and had a good start to the third quarter, but Defiance (12-9, 6-3 WBL) made a run and our kids remained really calm,” Van Wert head coach Mark Bagley said. “We actually lost the lead late in the quarter, then played a really good fourth quarter.”

Bagley took the reins for Van Wert in the third quarter, scoring seven of his team’s 13 points, but Will Lammers poured in nine of his 18 points and Mitchell Nasir scored seven, as the Bulldogs outscored the Cougars 21-13 in the period.

The Cougars opened the fourth quarter with a 44-43 lead and finished strong, outscoring the hosts 23-13, with Treece connecting on a pair of triples, a basket and five foul shots. Henry and Bagley chipped in with two baskets each.

“We challenged them to be a little bit better defensively, and we finished the game the right way,” the elder Bagley explained.

Van Wert was 25 of 47 from the floor, 11 of 13 from the free throw line and had 19 rebounds, while Defiance was 23 of 63 shooting, 6 of 6 from the fould line and had 21 rebounds. Each team had six turnovers.

With the win, the Cougars finished the regular season 13-9 (6-3 WBL) and won eight of their last 10 games.

“Our kids are really confident right now,” Bagley said. “We talked about this week being a tournament preparation week and we tried to really look at how to approach this week Sunday alll the way through tonight.”

“We’ll do the same thing next week because the schedule is identical to this week with the Tuesday-Friday games. All of our focus is on Bath right now, we hope to get that one and survive and advance to Friday.”

Van Wert will play Bath in the Division II sectional semifinals at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Findlay High School, with the winner returning to face Wauseon for the sectional championship on Friday.

Scoring summary

Defiance 11 11 21 13 – 58
Van Wert 12 19 13 23 – 67

Defiance: DJ Dobson 7-2-19; Will Lammers 8-0-18; James Seele 1-0-2; Jack Vanderhorst 0-2-2; Tyrel Goings 2-0-4; Caden Kline 1-0-2; 3-2-9; Alex Naton 1-0-2

Van Wert: Owen Treece 6-5-21; Nate Place 7-2-17; LeTrey Williams 0-2-2; Blake Henry 4-2-10; Lawson Blackmore 1-0-2; Drew Bagley 7-0-15