Nick Manz scored a career-high 27 points to lead Paulding past Edgerton 72-52 on Friday evening, giving the Panthers their first Green Meadows Conference win since rejoining the league this season.

“Our guys had a good week of practice and we were aggressive from the start,” explained Paulding head coach Brian Miller, whose Panthers have now won two straight. “We weren’t forcing a lot of turnovers, but they never got comfortable because of our 1-3-1.”

Paulding was on top 17-10 after one quarter and upped the lead to 34-21 at half thanks to the long-range shooting of Peyton Adams.

“Peyton hit three big 3s in the first half which got things going in our favor,” Miller said of the 5-10 junior, who hit three triples in the game to finish with nine points for the second outing in a row.

The Panthers doubled up the Bulldogs 20-10 in the third quarter to put the game away, leading 54-31 entering the final period.

“In the third quarter we came out stale and they cut the lead to seven, but Nick scored eight straight points to widen it back out,” Miller said. “Our press created run outs and layups to put things away.”

Manz scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the second half, with 14 coming in the third quarter.

“Nick had a great game hitting two 3s in the third quarter that were key,” Miller pointed out. “Everyone that played contributed which was good to see.”

Ethan Foltz joined Adams with nine points for the Panthers, which upped their record to 3-8 overall while improving to 1-1 in the GMC. Christian Bauer, Zach Gorrell and Casey Agler all totaled seven points for Paulding.

The Panthers finished 25-51 from the floor for 49 percent and 15-21 from the charity stripe for 71 percent while outrebounding Edgerton 24-18. Both squads turned the ball over 11 times.

Cole Meyer had 15 points and Casey Everetts 10 for the Bulldogs, which shot 45 percent from the field on 14-31 while hitting 20-27 at the free-throw line for 74 percent in slipping to 2-8 on the season and 0-2 in the GMC.

Edgerton 10 11 10 21 - 52

Paulding 17 17 20 18 - 72

EDGERTON (52)

Meyer 4-1-4-15; Everetts 2-2-0-10; Picillo 0-1-0-3; Swank 0-0-6-6; Herman 1-0-2-4; Blue 0-2-2-8; Timbrook 0-0-4-4; Weaver 1-0-0-2. Totals 10-4-20-52.

PAULDING (72)

Zartman 2-0-0-4; Bauer 2-0-3-7; Manz 9-2-3-27; Gorrell 1-1-2-7; Foltz 3-0-3-9; Agler 0-1-4-7; Adams 0-3-0-9; Cantu 1-0-0-2. Totals 14-5-1-44.

Reserve Score: Paulding, 48-29.