A night of honoring the future as the Tinora Lady Rams played host to the Future Rams program as well as honoring the 7th and 8th grade girls basketball teams coached by Doug Plassman and Spencer Barcewicz.

Also on the docket was the main attraction as the Lady Rams hosted the very young, up-and-coming Paulding Panthers basketball team. The Lady Rams entered coming off a hard loss at Kalida on Tuesday with an 11-8 record. 2-3 in the GMC, while the youthful Panthers came in at 8-10, 2-3 in conference play.

Paulding’s Brooklyn Bakle gave Paulding a quick 2-0 lead three seconds into the contest. The next four minutes was the Nova Okuley show. Okuley’s NBA three from the right wing would give Tinora an 13-3 lead midway through the opening quarter and grow to as many as 17-5 with 1:50 on the clock.

Okuley would light the nets up for three 3 pointers and 11 first quarter points as the Lady Rams grabbed a 19-11 lead after one.
Addison Lee of the Lady Rams would also throw in six points in the first quarter of play.

The second quarter would see Paulding’s coach Matt Arellano turn up the defense with his Panthers. The Paulding offense also heated up as they up and down the floor, as the Panthers would outscore Tinora 12-4 over the next eight minutes and 18-5 in the final 10 minutes of the first half. 

The Paulding defense did not allow a Tinora basket until the 4:10 mark of the quarter, an Addison Lee put back, Lee scored all four of the Tinora second quarter points.

Paulding chipped away at the Tinora lead, finally catching the Lady Rams at 23 as Brooklyn Bakle would hit two free throws right before the half.

Teams headed to the locker rooms tied at 23-23. Brooklyn Bakle bucketed five points in the second quarter for the Panthers. Bakle and Addison Pease lead the Panthers with seven points at the half.
The Lady Rams were lead by Nova Okuley with her 11 points.

The third quarter opened with Paulding grabbing a 25-23 lead with just under seven minutes on the clock on a Brooklyn Schlatter bucket.

Tinora started their comeback as junior Eowyn Blanchard hit a left side jumper, tying the game at 25-25 with 5:30 on the clock. The Lady Rams would go on to outscore Paulding 16-4 over the next five minutes to take a 41-29 lead through three quarters. 

The key was a 12-0 Lady Rams run in a three-minute span midway through the third quarter, led by great defense by Tinora and Nova Okuley’s six points and Addison Lee’s six markers.

In the final quarter, the Lady Rams would grab an early fourth quarter 43-31 advantage on a Julie Durfey 10 footer and would grow to as many as 44-31.

Paulding would again chip away, butting the lead down to five as the Panther’s Tory Schlatter’s free throw cut the Tinora lead to 45-40 with 2:30 on the fourth quarter clock.

Eowyn Blanchard and Nova Okuley’s free throws increased the Tinora lead to 48-40 with just under two minutes remaining.

The Lady Rams held off a feisty Panthers team, holding the home court with a 52-40 lead. 

Another quality team win for coach Thiel and his Lady Rams.

PAULDING 11-12-6-11=40
TINORA  19-4-18-11=52

Paulding scoring: A Pease 11, B Bakle 7, Schlatter 5, E Pease 5, B Schlatter 5, Breier 2, Dunham 5
Tinora scoring: Lee 16, K Okuley 3, Blanchard 10, Durfey 3, N Okuley 17, Bailey 1

Three-point goals: Paulding – A. Pease, Bakle, E. Pease, B. Schlatter. Tinora – N. Okuley 5, Lee 2.
Turnovers: Paulding 14, Tinora 6.

JV- Tinora 26-17
Paulding: Shull 6, Tinora Meyer 10

Paulding falls to 8-11, 2-4 in GMC play. The Panthers will host Liberty Center on Saturday at 12 pm.

Tinora improve to 12-8, 4-2 in Green Meadows Conference play. The Lady Rams wrap up the regular season next week on Tuesday at Stryker and Thursday at home vs. Antwerp.

The Higbea Embroidery Player of the Game went to Julie Durfey, Congratulations Julia! 
Julia played fantastic defense yet again and grabbed 13 rebounds vs. her counterpart, Kayleigh Dunham.

Watch, click below: