Vikings win Buggy Bowl

By Mike Myers, Sports Writer

MONTGOMERY – For three quarters of Saturday’s Buggy Bowl showdown on Kavanaugh Kourt, the North Daviess Cougars did things their way. But in the last eight minutes of the game, the Barr-Reeve Vikings did things Ashton Wagler’s way.

Wagler scored all 11 of his points in the fourth quarter, helping Class A No. 3 Barr-Reeve break free from No. 10 North Daviess and reclaim the Buggy Bowl trophy with a 51-45 win before a standing room only crowd.

North Daviess (9-6) controlled the action for much of the first three quarters against Barr-Reeve (12-2). Kendall Wittmer scored 16 of his game high 21 points in the first half as the patient Cougars built a 22-18 halftime lead, a lead which had increased to seven points late in the third quarter.

But a 7-0 B-R run to end the third quarter, including a 3-pointer from Willie Helms and a pair of buckets from Christian Duncheon, forged a 29-all tie heading into the fourth quarter.

The Vikings took their first lead since early in the game on a pair of free throws and a basket to open the fourth quarter by Trey Hughes, who topped B-R with 16 points. Then Wagler went to work. The sophomore forward, who wasn’t in the starting lineup on Saturday, scored 10 of Barr-Reeve’s next 14 points, including a pair of 3-point daggers aimed straight at the heart of Cougar Nation, to help keep the Vikings ahead of a relentless North Daviess squad.

With ND keying on the two main offensive weapons for B-R – Hughes and Christian Duncheon (six points against ND) Viking mentor Bryan Hughes was looking for someone to step up against the Cougars’ zone defense. Wagler answered that call.

“Asthon can shoot the ball. I jumped him pretty hard about playing soft, and not playing hard. He had a great fourth quarter for us, it probably won the game,” said Hughes. “So many times we’re playing, especially tonight against the zone, where we’ve got guys who are not really offensive guys on the floor. You can’t rely on Trey and Christian to get every shot, you’ve got to have some guys on the floor that can provide some offense for us.”

Barr-Reeve’s lead reached eight points at 41-33 on Wagler’s second three with 3:18 left before the Cougars mounted a furious comeback. North Daviess eventually tied the game 43-all on a basket by Crays - who finished with eight points – with 1:46 left. But Wagler responded with a basket at the 1:13 mark, then drained two free throws with :27 left for a 47-43 B-R lead, and the Vikings would never trail again.

Forward Brandon Graber added seven points for the Vikings and helped forge a 20-17 B-R rebounding advantage after North Daviess outrebounded the Vikes 10-7 in the first half. Jonathon Gingerich added five points for Barr-Reeve, who also got three each from Helms and Jordan Sinnott.

Hughes was happy with the way his team battled back in the second half after trailing for much of the contest.

“I really thought we showed some composure, we talked about that this morning. They (North Daviess) came ready to play, I just thought our kids did battle back,” said Hughes. “I thought our defense picked up, and then the second half we started attacking the zone a little bit better. We were just standing too much. We started trying to make some things happen, and that was the key.”

North Daviess coach Brent Dalrymple was looking for effort right from the start and he got it from his team – “I give our kids an A+ on that, they really came out and played hard” said Dalrymple. Competing against the Vikings was important for the Cougars, who were blown out at potential sectional foe Loogootee less than two weeks, only to see another potential sectional opponent in Barr-Reeve waltz into that same Jack Butcher Arena and dispatch the Lions with relative ease a few days later.

“That’s one of the things we really felt like we needed to get done. We could have come in here and have happen what happened to us at Loogootee, and then I don’t know where our confidence is,” said Dalrymple, whose team suffered from foul trouble all night and lost Wittmer to fouls with just over 2:00 to play. “There are no moral victories, we didn’t win this game, we’ve got to learn how to win these games. We’ve been in a couple of these games now where we’ve lost at the end. We’ve got to learn how to win at the end.”

Nelson Graber added 11 points for the Cougars, who also five points off the bench from T.J. Miller in the fourth quarter.

In a preliminary contest between two quality JV teams, Barr-Reeve (10-0) got 12 points from Heath Graber in a 38-29 win. Lewis Nugent’s 10 points led North Daviess (10-2).

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