For the bulk of the first three quarters of Polk County’s girls game against Hendersonville on Friday, both teams were as cold as the weather outside.
Points were hard to come by, defense ruled the day and the squads struggled to a stalemate, tied 23-23 midway through the third.
Then things heated up in a hurry. Both teams used runs to fight their way on top, then gave way to the other, before Hendersonville used a final rally to pull away for a 51-40 win.
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“We really didn’t execute,” Polk County coach Brandy Alm said. “Defensively we made adjustments and did what we needed to do. Offensively, we didn’t execute when we needed to.”
The Wolverines (12-2, 3-2) got the first big run of the night. Amiyah Waters scored six points in an 8-3 run, with Honesty Jackson providing the other bucket, as Polk County took a 31-26 lead late in the third.
But the Bearcats (14-3, 5-1) turned inside to Eleanor Pavao, who took over down the stretch. She scored four straight at the end of the third and made a free throw to open the fourth to knot the score at 31-all. That touched off a wild series in which six straight scores resulted in ties or lead changes, including Polk County’s last lead of the night at 36-33 on Bailey Staton’s layup and free throw.
That’s when the Bearcats threw the last haymaker. Vicky Flowers hit a 3-pointer to tie things up at 36, and Pavao had six of her game-high 21 points to key a 15-0 Hendersonville run that put the game away. Waters’ bucket inside with a minute to play broke the run, but the Bearcats led by 10 and pulled away down the stretch.
“We turned it over, the shots weren’t falling, and it just wasn’t our night tonight,” Alm said. “But we’ve got four sophomores who play a lot of minutes, and I think tonight they learned a lot about themselves.Close games are good for us. We learn about ourselves and I think we learn a little bit about end-of-game strategy.
“The girls played hard, they made adjustments when we needed to, it just wasn’t our night. We’re still in great position to compete for a conference title, we just have to keep working hard and keep getting better.”
Staton led the Wolverines with 16 points on the night, while Waters scored 13. Sofie Abrahamsen and Jackson each had four points while Reeve Carroll added three.
Samiyah Smith added 10 points for Hendersonville, while Flowers and Addison Reid had nine each.
