The Paden City Lady Wildcats’ season came to an abrupt halt as the St. Marys Blue Devils cruised to an easy 75-42 Region I, Section II victory in St. Marys Feb. 21.

The Blue Devils, without the services of Head Coach Howard Meeks who was at the hospital with his father, jumped out to a 17-8 lead after eight minutes and never looked back in closing out the Paden City Wildcat season at 4-20.

The one-two punch of Kelsea Fickiesten and Sara O’Neil accounted for 48 Blue Devil points, while the only double digit scoring came from Ali Bertozzi who netted 20 points and 22 rebounds for a double-double for Paden City.

The ‘Cats couldn’t contain neither Fickiesten nor O’Neil and fell behind early and forced a lot of turnovers that St. Marys feasted on.

“We didn’t have anyone that could contain Fickiesten,” said Paden City Head Coach Kelly Sine. “She is a player and we better be finding someone that can slow her down, because a player like that you’re not going to shut down.

“We won four games this season, but that was four more than we won last season. We only made 53 percent from the free throw line. If we would have shot just 65 percent we would have won nine more games. If the girls work hard during the off season we should be a team to be reckoned with,” added Sine.

Coach Sine stated that he and Coach Fred King will have a full schedule for the kids to do in June.

Besides Bertozzi’s 20 points, Amanda Tallman and Shauna Durant each added eight points, while Courtney Conaway tallied five for the Wildcats. “Alli has carried the load for the biggest part of the season. We need for some of the other players to step up and help her in the scoring department,” said Coach Sine.

Paden City will lose three players to graduation in the fall, in Durant, Amy Toman and Sasha Newson. “We will miss all three of the seniors, especially Durant who has been my point guard for the last two seasons,” added Sine.

“I want to thank Dave Snyder for helping with the seventh and eighth grade this season and for Bruce Crawford for coming out for one season to help me,” continued Sine.

However, the cupboard isn’t bare. The Wildcats return their three top scorers in Bertozzi, Conaway and Tallman, plus they have a wealth of talent coming up from the junior varsity team in Amber Palmer, Erica Sapp, Dominique Craft, Haley Fox, Joni Myers, and Amanda Heasley.