Wolverines hope to be second-half factor in wide-open WHC boys race

As his team reaches midseason, the record is certainly not what Polk County head coach Josh McEntire expected.

And while McEntire isn’t looking to make excuses for the Wolverines’ 1-11 first half, it certainly has been far from a normal season in Columbus.

“We’ve finally started, the last two weeks, to practice with 10 varsity players on the court,” McEntire said. “That makes a difference.”

Polk County entered the season with a young squad, only three seniors on the roster and one of those, DJ Twitty, in his first varsity season. Three freshmen expected to be contributors – Arnie Twitty, Dillion Overholt and Holden Owens – have each missed time during the season due to injuries.

The mix of youth, inexperience and lack of practice time have most notably affected Polk County on the offensive end of the court. The Wolverines are averaging 49 points per game and have yet to reach the 60-point mark in any game this season. Opponents have held Polk County to 45 points or less in six of the 12 games.

Too often, as McEntire has reiterated all season, the Wolverines have relied too heavily upon Jamal Wheeler, the team’s leading scorer. Wheeler’s 30-point outburst at Mountain Heritage carried Polk County to its lone win, and the junior guard has scored in double figures in all but two games. He is the lone player averaging in double figures.

“We’ve got to learn thta when (Wheeler) is not on the court, we’ve got to keep playing our game,” McEntire said. “Him not being out there does not change anything.”

One bit of good news for the Wolverines is that the Western Highlands Conference race appears wide open – Avery is undefeated in league play, routed both Polk County and Madison last week and is the current team-to-beat in the league. But five of the league’s seven teams have at least two losses, and as the Wolverines’ win at Mountain Heritage showed, it’s definitely a season where any WHC team can beat any other team on any given night.

The other bit of good news is that Polk County enters the second half of its schedule off one of its best performances of the season. The scoreboard in an 84-57 loss to A.C. Reynolds may not have reflected that, but for three quarters, the Wolverines were as good offensively as they’ve been all season, with crisp passing on the perimeter often setting up easy shots inside.

“I’ve told the kids that we’ve got eight big conference games left,” McEntire said. “We can make a run at a 2A playoff spot. All of the 2A schools are in a bunch, and they’re all in reaching distance if we get hot.

“There are a lot of big games left to play, and we can find ourselves in a good spot if we play well.”