The Van Wert County Courthouse

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

Battle of the cats: VW beats Bath 72-59

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

LIMA — Make it four wins in five games for the Van Wert Cougars.

Behind 38 points by Owen Treece and 19 by Clayton Proffitt, the Cougars rallied for a 72-59 win over Western Buckeye League foe Bath on Friday. The victory improved Van Wert’s record to 7-13 (3-5 WBL), while the Wildcats fell to 2-19 (0-8 WBL).

Clayton Proffitt scored 14 points in the third quarter of Friday’s game against Bath. He finished with 19 points. Bob Barnes/file photo

Treece and Jake Hilleary combined for nine of Van Wert’s 11 first quarter points and the Cougars led 11-7 at the end of the period. Led by Derek Grigsby’s six second quarter points, six different Wildcats scored in the period and Bath took a 25-23 led into the locker room at halftime.

“Our message at halftime was if you’re open, shoot with confidence,” head coach Ben Laudick said.

Treece and Proffitt took over in the third quarter, combining for 25 of Van Wert’s 27 points in the period. Treece scored 11 in the quarter, while Proffitt scored 14, which included four triples. Two of those treys tied the game 43-43 with two minutes left, then an offensive rebound and basket by Jake Hilleary put the Cougars ahead 45-43.

“We told him he was going to be the guy who was going to shoot us out of the box-and-one they put on Owen,” Laudick said. “He just caught fire and then Owen once again was Owen.”

The turning point came when Treece was fouled on a three point attempt with 1.2 seconds left in the third and he hit all three, giving Van Wert a 50-46 advantage at the end of the period. The 5-11 junior then opened the fourth quarter with a trey from the top of the key that put the Cougars ahead 53-46.

“That was huge,” Laudick said. “He’s a gamer, he’s always looking to make a play and he definitely has a shooter’s mentality. He just does a lot of good things for us.”

After Treece’s three pointer, Bath’s Landyn Fleharty answered with a basket but from there Van Wert scored 11 unanswered points, including six by Treece and five more by Hilleary, to extend the lead to 64-48. Hilleary finished with 13 points and Laudick lauded his play and the play of Parker Conrad.

“I thought Parker made some toughness plays in the fourth quarter to help take the lead from six or seven points to double digits,” Laudick explained. “Jake had another quiet double figure night that got overshadowed. I’m just really happy with the way our guys are starting to play the way they know they’re capable of playing.”

Grigsby led Bath with 12 points, while Fleharty and Lucas Prichard each had 10.

Van Wert will return to action Tuesday at Lima Central Catholic.

“We are hoping to get the Tuesday night blues off of our backs,” Laudick said. “We have not played well on Tuesdays but I feel like we’re a different team right now, one with a lot of confidence.”

Scoring summary

Bath 7 18 21 13 – 59
VWHS 11 12 27 22 – 72

Bath: Landyn Fleharty 3-4-10; Logan Davis 1-0-2; Britton Hall 2-0-6; Tyler Mauk 1-0-2; Derek Grigsby 5-2-12; Jonah Wauben 2-1-6; Carter Parlapiano 2-2-8; Ian Armentrout 1-0-3; Lucas Prichard 4-1-10

Van Wert: Clayton Proffitt 7-0-19; Owen Treece 12-9-38; Keaton Brown 1-0-2; Jake Hilleary 5-3-13

JV: Van Wert 50-20

POSTED: 02/15/20 at 12:18 am. FILED UNDER: Sports