It hasn’t been the best of starts this season for Polk County’s girls basketball team, but head coach Brandy Alm says she wouldn’t trade the team for any other.
The Wolverines showed why Alm feels that way on Monday night. Some 72 hours after a blowout loss to Madison, Polk County returned to its home court and nearly stunned 3A A.C. Reynolds, rallying late before falling 51-44.
The Rockets (2-7) led by 10 points with 2:36 remaining, but Polk County (0-6) refused to slip quietly into the night. Mariah Overholt drilled a 3-pointer from the left win and Autumn Owen followed with a layup to cut Reynolds’ lead to 47-42 with 1:45 remaining.
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Owen added another basket with 1:04 left to trim the deficit to three, but Reynolds solved Polk County’s pressure and got a layup with 45 seconds left to up the lead to five. The Wolverines failed to score on their next possession, and the Rockets added two late free throws for the final margin.
“Just like every time they gave 110 percent effort,” Alm said. “I love coaching this team because of that. They would run through a brick wall for each other.
“One thing that was a gamechanger for us was elimiating a lot of the second chance points. We boxed out a lot better. We’re improving game by game.”
The Wolverines trailed by eight at the end of the first period, but Owen, Overholt and Ansley Lynch led an 8-0 run to open the second quarter and even the score. Lynch picked up her third foul at that point, joining Bella Marino in early foul trouble, and the Rockets pulled back out to a 29-19 lead at halftime.
Reynolds led by 17 midway through the third quarter before the Wolverines began to steadily chip away at the lead, setting the stage for the fourth-quarter rally.
Owen had 23 points and six rebounds to lead Polk County, with Lynch and Overholt each scoring seven. Ava Marino had three points and three steals and Karli Wood and Kiri Ashley each added two points.
