Anchored by defense, Polk County girls poised for playoff run

The 2013-14 season has been, to date, a bit of a roller coaster ride for Polk County’s girls basketball squad.

The Wolverines opened with a 5-1 start, then lost four straight before bouncing back for a three-game winning streak that will be on the line Friday night when Polk County is scheduled to travel to Western Highlands Conference leader Mountain Heritage.

“Being a young team with only two seniors, I expected some up and downs as the players got use to playing together,” said head coach Craig Culbreth of the journey to the team’s current 8-5 record. “Our conference is one of the tougher basketball leagues so if you don’t play your best you going to lose most nights. But I do feel good where we are going into second half of season. Girls are starting to build confidence and getting use to playing together.”

Despite that young and small roster, which numbers only eight on most nights, Polk County has stayed true to its preseason plan to be aggressive on both ends of the court. Pressing from opening whistle to close defensively, the Wolverines have held all but two opponents under 60 points, and the team averages 16 steals per game, led by sophomore guard Hayley Kropp with 4.9 per game. Junior center Sarah Phipps has also developed into one of the area’s top rebounders, grabbing 11.7 boards per game, to help anchor a defense that has exceeded even Culbreth’s expectations.

“I have been surprised at how well our defense has played,” he said. “Having only one player over 5-9 we have to rely on quickness and playing together as a team. So we press a lot and try to play pressure defense, which results in steals if you do it right.”

It has been the offensive end where Polk’s youth has been more evident. The Wolverines have just one double-figure scorer, that being Kropp at 14.5 points per game, and only three others averaging at least five points per game – Phipps (8.5) and seniors Lyric Flood (7.7) and Janada Carson (5.0). Shooting 33 percent as a team, there have been nights when the Wolverines have struggled to turn steals and rebounds and solid defense into points.

But last Friday’s win over Hendersonville may have marked a turning point. Polk County struggled in the first half perhaps as much as at any point this season, making just two field goals and scoring only seven points by the intermission. The second half, though, saw the Wolverines pile up 47 points en route to a runaway 54-22 win, getting contributions from the entire roster in a half where it seemed no one could miss.

“Hendersonville was a perfect game to show how our confidence has grown,” Culbreth said. “Early in the season I don’t know if we would have come out and turned on the pressure like we did in the second half. But in the locker room at halftime, I didn’t see the sad faces. I saw the players telling each other to pick it up and encouraging each other. Then we came out and played a great half.

“(I’m) pleased at how well our team has come together and how well they get along with each other. It’s been a fun group to coach.”

Tied for fourth in the WHC standings, Polk County has put itself in position to contend for a playoff berth over the second half of the conference schedule. There will be plenty of challenges to face in that quest with a conference that includes three teams in Mountain Heritage, Madison and Avery that are a combined 36-10 at this point. Culbreth, though, is ready to tackle them.

“As I said before we have a tough conference to play in,” he said. “But we are in a great spot to make playoffs. It’s going to be fun to see how we play them the second time around.”