Bailey Staton sprinted over to Amiyah Waters after her layup and drawn foul to open the fourth quarter, shouting words that summed up what Polk County needed Tuesday night.
“Let’s have some energy.”
The Wolverines had plenty of it from there, with Staton scoring 11 points in a 2:22 span to help Polk County pull away from East Henderson for a 51-29 victory.
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With Polk up 34-20 early in the fourth period, Staton grabbed a rebound and scored to make it 36-20, then hit back-to-back 3-pointers and three free throws to push the lead to 45-25 with 4:10 remaining. A Charley Dusenbury jumper and Sofie Abrahamsen free throw pushed the advantage to 20 and the Wolverines cruised from there.
Staton finished with 20 points to lead Polk County (3-0). Waters added 16 while dominating the paint, Abrahamsen scored six, Reeve Carroll had five and Honesty Jackson and Dusenbury each finished with two.
Sparked by a nice spin move and layup by Waters, the Wolverines opened the game with a 6-0 run and built an 11-2 lead midway through the first quarter. East Henderson (2-2) scored with 29 seconds left in the period to cut the deficit to 13-7, but Polk County responded with a 13-0 run in the second quarter to take a 26-7 halftime lead.
East Henderson’s Mamie Hill scored with 6:26 left in the third quarter to end an Eagles’ scoring drought of more than 10 minutes and make it 26-9. The Eagles closed to within 32-18 at the end of the third period before Polk County took control in the fourth.
With head coach Brandy Alm absent, assistant coaches Jon Ezell and Sara Muse coached the team with help from athletic director Michelle Fagan.
Polk County travels to East Rutherford on Dec. 5.
