Lights come on, rally ends for Wolverines in loss to Owen

Perhaps they should have left the lights out Friday night at Polk County High School.

Down 17 early in the third period when an electrical issue knocked out four lights, Polk County rallied within five points of Owen as the quarter neared its end. But around the time the lights were restored, so too was Owen’s lead, the Warhorses pulling away for an 80-62 Western Highlands Conference win on Senior Night at Polk County.

The Wolverines (6-13, 2-8) faced a 52-35 deficit with 5:43 left in the third period when the handful of lights suddenly went dark. After a delay of a few minutes, game officials decided to restart play while school personnel worked to find the electrical problem. The outages were largely over Polk County’s side of the court.

But the dimness didn’t seem to bother the Wolverines, who suddenly roared to life. A Wes Mullis basket triggered a 14-0 run fueled by Anthony Carson, who scored eight points in a span of 32 seconds, Jordan Smith, who had back-to-back scores, Mullis, Jason Chupp and Jamal Tanner. Harassing Owen into turnovers, driving the lane for baskets, the Wolverines seemed right back in the game, trailing 56-51 when Carson scored again with 18 seconds remaining.

But Owen’s Michael Pomeroy, one of the leading scorers in Western North Carolina, drew a foul at the third-period buzzer and hit a pair of free throws, and the Warhorses seemed to regain their composure with the quarter break. Owen (11-11, 6-5) opened the fourth period with eight straight points to build a 66-51 advantage. Saquan Miller drove the baseline for a basket and Tanner hit a 3-pointer from the corner to cut the margin to 10, but Owen pushed the lead to 20 over the next two minutes of game time.

“In the third quarter we played with the kind of energy I wanted us to play with,” said Polk County head coach Josh McEntire. “We blocked out better, we rebounded better and we got right back in the game.

“I don’t know if we spent too much energy trying to get back into the game. I finally found a combination of five kids who were getting after it and giving us good energy, but I couldn’t leave them out there for a quarter and a half. I had to sub some, and when we subbed, we just didn’t bring the energy we needed to bring.”

With Polk unable to find its offensive rhythm early, the Warhorses scored the game’s first nine points before Carson hit a 3-pointer from the key at the 4:44 mark. Polk County pulled within five, but a three-point play by Pomeroy helped carry Owen to a 23-13 lead at the end of the quarter.

Owen’s lead remained in double digits for all of the second period, growing to as large as 18 points as the Warhorses worked the ball inside and dominated rebounding on both ends of the court. Owen took a 46-28 lead at the half.

“If you don’t box out and you give a team like that two or three shots, they’re going to make one. That’s all there is to it,” McEntire said. “We had too many defensive lapses and too many forced shots on offense. We talked about moving the ball side to side, inside and out, to get better shots, and we didn’t do that in the first half.”

Carson scored 19 points to lead the Wolverines, who also got 14 points from Tanner and 11 from Smith. Pomeroy had 24 points to lead Owen.

Polk County closes its home schedule on Monday, hosting West Henderson, before wrapping up its regular season with games at Hendersonville (Tuesday) and Owen (Wednesday).

Polk County Scoring
Anthony Carson 19, Jamal Tanner 14, Jordan Smith 11, Saquan Miller 8, Wes Brady 4, Wes Mullis 4, Jaylin Hines 2