By: Joe Shouse, Sportswriter
Havilland – Wayne Trace welcomed Van Wert to the Palace for the final game prior to Christmas and it was the visiting Cougars who unwrapped an impressive 67-55 win over the Raiders. Van Wert scored the first 11 points in the contest and settled for a 19-9 lead after one quarter of play.
Van Wert enjoyed their early success thanks to the aggressive play of Nate Place who scored 12 points in the initial period. While Place cooled off in the second stanza, team mate Owen Treece took over offensively with a 15-point second quarter performance. For the contest, Treece finished with 25 and Place added 17 to lead the Cougars. Van Wert went in at the break holding a 37-23 advantage following a half-court heave as the buzzer sounded by Treece.
Wayne Trace started chipping away at the margin in the third quarter. A Reid Miller bucket with 4:15 remaining in the third had the Raiders closing in, trailing by nine points. A Cougar free throw followed by a Nate Gerber basket had the Raiders within striking distance—trailing by just eight at 43-35.
Wayne Trace fell behind by as many as 12 at 48-36 before the red, white, and blue made another push before the third quarter conclusion. Bach-to back buckets by Alex Reinhart and a Jace Vining triple with 1:08 remaining had the Raiders within five 48-43.
The fourth quarter opened with a basket from Miller to keep the margin at five 50-45 but a 10-0 Van Wert run put the Cougars in the drivers seat leading 60-45. The Raiders could never close the gap down the stretch.
Reid Miller had a solid performance for Head Coach Jim Linder’s crew. The junior finished with 24 points, hitting 4-8 from the field and 2-2 behind the arc. Miller was equally impressive at the line hitting 10-12. Miller, a 5-11 guard also tallied five rebounds.
The only other Raider in double-digits was Trae Sinn with 11 who was perfect from two-point land hitting all three of his attempts. The senior was 5-6 from the charity stripe.
Also scoring for Wayne Trace was Nate Gerber six; Alex Reinhart six; Josiah Linder four; Jace Vinging three and Evan Mohr one.
Blake Henry joined team mates Treece and Place with double figures, finishing with 12. The trio was impressive with their shooting, hitting a combined 16-26 of their two-point shots and 7-12 from behind the arc.
For the game the Raiders connected on 14-27 of their two-point shots for 51 percent but behind the arc they were just 3-16 for 19 percent. The Raiders shot very well at the free throw line hitting 16-18 for 89 percent.
Van Wert finished the night hitting 19-33 from two-point land and 8-15 behind the arc. From the free throw line the Cougars were just 5-11.
The Cougars out rebounded the Raiders 28-24 with Josiah Linder; Nate Gerber helping the Raider cause with five boards each.
Both teams took care of the basketball with few recorded turnovers. Van Wert totaled 10 miscues with the Raiders committing just seven.
In the Junior Varsity game the Cougars outlasted the Raiders in the closing minute to secure a 42-38 win.
The Raiders fall to 5-2 on the season and Van Wert improves to 2-3 with the non conference win.
Starting out in 2019 the Raiders will open Green Meadows Conference play at home with Tinora on January 3 and travel to Arlington on January 5.
