The local girls basketball teams are finding the beginning of their season a tough road to travel as both the Lady ‘Cats of Paden City and the Tyler Consolidated Lady Knights are coming close, but finding wins hard to pocket. Both teams have had sever close encounters of late, but coming up short when the buzzer sounds.

Lady ‘Cats

The Lady Wildcats traveled to Cameron on Dec. 13, and though they put forth a fine effort, fell short at the end, 51-33.

The Lady Dragons jumped out to a 15-6 lead after one period of play and built the lead to 27-13 at the break. In the third period, the Lady Dagon defense held Paden City to five points, while tacking on 11 markers of their own before the Wildcats – led by senior Dominque Craft’s eight points and six rebounds – pulled to within 10 points, before Cameron put the dagger in on an impressive finish to gain the nod by 18 tallies.

Dominique Craft dropped in a season-high 20 points, including one basket from beyond the arch leading all scorers in the game with 20 points, including 9-13 from the charity stripe. Senior Amanda Heasley finished with five points, 3-4 charity tosses; Logan Cosper scored three points; Myra Greathouse and Lynnsie Parsons each put two points on the scoreboard and Lynan Stanley tossed in a free throw.

Playing at home on Dec. 19, Lady ‘Cat Amanda Heasley earned her first double-double of the season, 12 points and 11 rebounds to help Paden City earn its first victory of the season against Wood County Christian, 40-29.

Paden City used a man-to-man defense that limited Wood County to only a free throw in the first half and would hold a commanding 22-8 lead at the break. Wood County fought back with a solid second half, but the Wildcats senior duo of Heasley and Dominique Craft would not their young team down to gain the nod.

Craft led all-scorers with 14-points, including one from beyond the arch, while adding five steals and pulling down a half dozen boards. Heasley, followed with 12-point, Lynnsie Parsons, chipped in with seven points and four steals, while Sam Shreves acked on two buckets, Logan Cosper a deuce and Lynan Stanley a free throw.

The Lady ‘Cats will travel to Valley on Dec. 30 in a varsity girls and boys double-header starting with the girls tip-off at 6 p.m.

Lady Knights

Tyler Consolidated’s girls varsity basketball team played hard until the very end of Dec. 14’s game at home against Oak Glen, but came up just short of the win, 55-51.

The Knights started off the game on fire, with everything falling and outscoring their guests, 22-21. In the second, both teams played tough defense holding each to only six points, putting the Knights in the lead at the half by one, 28-27.

Oak Glen managed to pull ahead in the third, outscoring the home team 10-7 to take the slim lead, 31-29. In the final stanza, the Lady Bears held on for the marginal win, 55-51 over the home standing Knights.

Junior Torrye Cline led the Silver offense with 25 points. Sophie Kinnard added 10 points; Sydney Reed, eight; Allison Wable, six; Hilary Casteel, two.

On Dec. 20 the Lady Knights were scheduled to play Doddridge.

The Silver will play one more game before the Christmas break, on Dec. 22 when they host the Parkersburg Catholic Lady Crusaders. The team will get one more game in before years’ end when they travel to Weir to take on the Lady Riders on Dec. 31.