Cougar girls down Paulding Panthers

DAVE MOSIER/independent sports

The Van Wert Cougar girls’ basketball team overcame a messy game, with 21 turnovers and their top scorer held to six points, to defeat the Paulding Lady Panthers 53-33 in a non-conference game Tuesday in the Cougar’s Den.

It wasn’t quite as easy as the score would indicate, with the Cougars having to overcome their own mistakes and some Paulding offensive mini-rallies for the win.

Van Wert came out shooting in the first quarter and had a 12-point lead, 14-2, over the Panthers by the end of the quarter. Paulding staged a mini-rally in the second quarter to cut three points off the Cougar lead. The score was 22-13 at the half.

Van Wert made improvements on both offense and defense in the third quarter, pushing the lead to 18 with an 18-9 run in the quarter and a score of 40-22 heading into the fourth period.

The final stanza was mostly even as the Cougars outpointed Paulding by a basket, 13-11, to ice the game.

With top scorer Alex Morrow held to just 6 points — and three of those points came on a trey in the first quarter — Molly Gamble again stepped up offensively for Van Wert, scoring 14 points to lead the Cougars. Alexis Dowdy had 9 points for Van Wert, while Morrow’s sister, Erin, scored 8 for the Cougar cause. Paulding had two players in double figures, led by Jessica Farr’s 16 points. Sierra McCullough added 10 points for the Panthers, who had only four players on the scoreboard in the game, versus 10 for Van Wert.

The win moves the Cougars to 8-5 on the year, but Van Wert is headed for a big test Thursday when it hosts Western Buckeye League leader and state-ranked Lima Bath in the Cougar’s Den. The junior varsity game begins at 6 that evening.

Speaking of the JVs, the Cougars also won that contest, 41-30, against Paulding to go to 10-3 on the season.