Wapakoneta’s Kaden Page (1) retrieves the ball in a battle with Van Wert’s Colin Haggerty (24) as his teammates, Rylan Miller (5) and Keaten Welch (11), watch Friday night at Wapakoneta High School.
Jackelyn Johnson | The Lima News
WAPAKONETA – There was at least one certainty for Friday’s Western Buckeye League boys basketball matchup between Wapakoneta and visiting Van Wert.
One team was going to record its first WBL victory of the season.
Wapakoneta started Friday’s game with a 6-0 spurt and ended the contest with a 12-0 run to record a 44-30 victory over Van Wert.
With the win, Wapakoneta improved to 6-5 overall and 1-2 in the WBL. Van Wert slipped to 3-9 in all games played and 0-3 in league play.
Zac Niekamp led Wapakoneta and all scorers with 15 points, including three 3-pointers. Caleb Moyer, a 6-foot-2 sophomore guard, had 11 points in what was his first game of the season. Moyer, the quarterback on the football team, was coming back from an injury he suffered during the postseason playoffs.
Cash Schadl had seven points. Kaden Page, a 6-foot-2 sophomore guard, scored four points and dished out a game-high six assists. Page also recorded two blocks and a steal. Nate Metzger had five points, eight rebounds, a block and two steals for the Redskins.
“When you start (the WBL schedule) with O-G and St. Marys (both losses) – that’s a tough start in the league,” Wapakoneta coach Trey Elchert said. “I thought we battled pretty well last week against St. Marys, but we just came up a play or two short. The goal now is one game at a time and continue to build as we get back to full health. Hopefully, we can start to string some (wins) here together.”
Elchert felt like his team played exceptionally well at the defensive end on Friday.
“I thought we set the tone early, defensively,” Elchert said. “We kept things in front of us. I thought we got a lot of deflections and a few steals. I thought there were a few breakdowns there in the third quarter. But as a whole, I felt like we were pretty effective, defensively.”
Elchert was pleased at how Moyer performed in his first game of the season.
“It was nice to see him (Moyer) out there. He does a lot of little things,” Elchert said. “He was our second leading scorer tonight with 11 points. As a coach, you’re comfortable when you see him out there. That’s a good feeling. We’re excited to have him back.”
Niekamp hit two of his 3-pointers in the second half, which helped the Redskins pull away.
“He (Niekamp) finally got some things going, offensively, in the second half, which is what we’re expecting of him,” Elchert said.
Elchert liked the way Page played at both ends of the floor on Friday.
“I thought Kaden (Page) played a great floor game tonight,” Elchert said. “He got to the rim a couple times. I thought he had a number of good passes tonight. He got his hands on a ton of things, defensively, whether it resulted in steals or just deflections.”
Keaten Welch, a 5-foot-10 freshman guard, led Van Wert with 11 points, including a 3-pointer. Welch also came away with four rebounds and two steals. Rylan Miller pulled down a team-high six rebounds and scored six points for the Cougars.
Wapakoneta led 10-4 at the end of the first quarter. The Redskins led 19-14 at the halftime break.
In the second quarter, Van Wert knotted the game, 10-10, on an inside move by Cohen Bragg (two points). However, Wapakoneta responded with a 9-4 spurt to close out the half.
The Cougars stayed within striking distance in the third quarter. At the third stop, Wapakoneta led 29-24.
However, in the fourth, Wapakoneta outscored Van Wert 15-6. The Redskins were 6 of 10 shooting from the floor.
For the game, Wapakoneta shot 48.7 percent from the field. Van Wert connected on 37.5 percent of its field goal attempts.
Elchert said building depth is going to be a work in progress.
“We rotate a lot of guys. … We played 10 guys tonight,” Elchert said. “Eight or nine guys got quite a few minutes, which is not typical of us. We’re trying to find that right mix of guys, and that will probably take a couple games before we figure it out. We wanted to give a lot of guys the opportunity to go out and perform tonight.”
Wapakoneta committed 10 turnovers, while Van Wert turned the ball over 12 times on the night.
Wapakoneta had a slight 22-19 edge on the boards.
Wapakoneta 44, Van Wert 30
Van Wert 4 10 10 6 – 30
Wapakoneta 10 9 10 15 – 44
Van Wert
Gage Stemen 4, Kaden Shaffer 3, Rylan Miller 6, Keaten Welch 11, Cohen Bragg 2, Colin Haggerty 4. Totals: 12-4-30.
Wapakoneta
Kaden Page 4, Caleb Moyer 11, Zac Niekamp 15, Nate Metzger 5, Cash Schadl 7, Ryan Sadler 2. Totals: 19-2-44.
3-pointers: Van Wert – Kaden Shaffer 1, Keaten Welch 1; Wapakoneta – Zac Niekamp 3, Cash Schadl 1
Records: Van Wert 3-9, 0-3 WBL; Wapakoneta 6-5, 1-2 WBL
