PAULDING—The Montpelier Lady Locos and Paulding Lady Panthers decided that four quarter were not enough, and went in to overtime to decide a winner. The Loco’s would fall short in the extra period, and would be defeated by a score of 64-56.
Montpelier would be outscored by the Panthers 17-12 in the opening quarter of action, but the Panther lead would not last long.
The Loco’s offense, lead by Hannah Blake found it’s groove in the second quarter, outscoring their opponents 13-5, and taking the over the lead by the time the halftime buzzer sounded. As the teams headed in to the lockers rooms for the halftime intermission, Montpelier owned a 25-22 lead over Pauling.
The Locomotive lead expanded in the third period, with Hannah Blake and Baylee Hageman doing their part to help the Montpelier cause, as the duo would score 23 and 18 points on the respectively on the night. By the end of the quarter, the Locos would see their lead grow to nine points, leading 43-34 after three quarters of action.
Although the Locos had outscored the Panthers 31-17 in the previous two quarters, Paulding’s three point prowess would keep them in the game. The Panthers were 53% for three pointers on the night, making eight for 15 shots from behind the arc. It was a very different tale for the Locos who were only able to make one three pointer out of their 13 attempts for 7%. The momentum had shifted in favor of the Panthers. Only nine points would go on the board in the fourth quarter for the Locomotives, while Paulding would go on to double that, putting up 18 points. As the fourth quarter came to a close, the teams were knotted at 52 and headed for overtime.
The Panthers would dominate the extra period, as Paulding would grab the lead early in overtime and never lose it. After a tough battle, the Locos would end up falling 61-56.
Blake’s 23 points lead all scorers. The Loco’s scoring was followed next by Hageman with 18, Maddie Richmond with five, Haley Suffel and Malorie Yagelski both were able to score three, and Marinna Mercer and Regan Steffes both ended the contest with two points.
-Mitchell Peebles