Basketball Recap: Paulding Takes a Loss

Paulding entered their matchup against Edgerton on Thursday without any home losses, but there's a first time for everything. The Paulding Panthers were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 62-61 to the Edgerton Bulldogs. The loss was a bit of a surprise, as the Panthers came into the game with a sizable advantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 156th, while the Bulldogs are ranked 460th).

Despite the loss, Paulding saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Kayleigh Dunham dropped a double-double on 23 points and 11 rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Dunham has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Tori Schlatter, who went 7 for 15 en route to 19 points along with six assists and five boards.

Even though they lost, Paulding smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 12 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in three consecutive contests.

Paulding's defeat ended a seven-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 13-3. As for Edgerton, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 8-8 record this season.

Paulding is taking a road trip to square off against Parkway at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. One thing working in Paulding's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points in their last three games. Edgerton has already played their next contest (against Stryker), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing.