Boys basketball notebook: Shawnee, Columbus Grove win league titles
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VAN WERT — When gameplanning throughout the week for Van Wert, in a matchup that would decide the winner of the Western Buckeye League, Shawnee coach Mark Triplett kept circling back to one thought he shared with his father. It was that Beckett Bertke, the reigning WBL Player of the Year, wouldn’t allow his team to lose a game of this magnitude. And Bertke backed him up on and off the court on Friday night, with passionate player-led discussion in the locker room at halftime and a game-high 22 points as Shawnee beat Van Wert 60-53 to clinch at least a share of its second straight league championship. “He was the loudest guy in the locker room tonight,” Shawnee coach Mark Triplett said. “Luke...