PADEN CITY – Coming off a 7-14 campaign last year, Paden City’s girls’ basketball team will have to go it without their top scoring threat for 2023, due to graduation, as well as dealing with youth as the Lady Wildcats do not have a senior player on the roster.

Coach Josh Fulks watched 20-plus point per game scorer McKenzie Thomas pick up her diploma last Spring, however, Paden City will have four returning starters set to hit the floor this season.

Leading the way will be juniors Kimberley Burch (5-5) at power forward and Lexi Mathis (5-3) at shooting guard. Sophomores Ashton Wade (6-1) at center and Katie Householder (5-6), the team’s point-guard, are also back. The fifth starting spots will go to a freshman in either Harmony Gross, a 5-7 post player, or Lilly Hatcher, a 5-4 guard.

Junior Brooke Gray (5-2, guard) leads the bench players that also include sophomores Hopelynn Ewing (5-3, guard) and Patricia Wade (5-8, forward) and freshmen Haven Helmerick (5-6, forward) and Madison Fluharty (5-1, guard).

Fulks is expecting Burch to carry the biggest portion of the load this year after scoring 10 points a night with six rebounds as a sophomore.

Haley Walton also graduated from last year while Hanna Shreves will serve as assistant coach.

“I figure Kimberley (Burch) will be our go-to girl, but I am also expecting big things from Ashton (Wade), who pulled down just under 10 rebounds a game last year and got even bigger over the summer,” Fulks mentioned. “Lexi Mathis is another player that I am expecting big things from.

“Our biggest issue is that we are a young team with zero senior leadership. Honestly, if we could finish the year at .500 that would be a huge accomplishment for us.

“We picked up a few new teams on our schedule, which I think is pretty fair for the size of our school and most of our opponents. This is probably going to be more of a learning year for everyone, but we are looking to build on this year and come back with experience and a senior dominated team next year.

“Bottom line is we need to continue to work on fundamentals and take things one game at a time. We are very excited for the start of the season and hopefully we can sneak up and surprise some teams.”

The Wildcats will play three of their initial four games at home with the season-opener slated for Dec. 1 against county rival Valley.