Thursday afternoon at Polk County Middle certainly merited the oft-overused cliche about the final score not truly reflecting the game that delivered it.
Consider that Polk Middle had a shot, with four minutes remaining in its girls basketball clash with Hendersonville Middle, to pull within three points of the Bearcats. That shot spun awry, and it seemed to awake something within the Bearcats.
Hendersonville Middle hit a trio of 3-pointers in the next couple of minutes to quickly pull away from Polk and race away to a 35-17 victory, earning a share of the Blue Ridge Conference East Division title in the process.
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Polk Middle saw its regular season end with a 6-6 mark and a tie for third place in the BRC East. The Wolverines will learn Friday who they will face in next week’s opening round of the BRC postseason tourney.
Polk can advance to the playoffs knowing that, until the waning minutes, the Wolverines more than kept pace with the East’s best.
This one was a defensive battle throughout, both teams aggressively pressuring ballhandlers and forcing turnovers. The teams managed just three combined points in the opening quarter, and Polk clung to a 6-5 halftime lead after two periods where points were at a premium.
That changed in the second half. An Emily Dotson jumper and Kenzie Alm’s 3-pointer to open the third period gave Polk an 11-5 edge. Hendersonville answered with nine straight points, capped by Chloe Glisson’s 3-pointer, and took a 17-13 advantage by the end of the third.
Glisson buried a three from the right wing to open the final quarter, and the Bearcat lead reached 22-13 before the Wolverines began to rally. Camdyn Israel-Garrett scored from the field and Ryleigh Dill added a pair of free throws to trim the margin to 22-17, and then the Wolverines forced a turnover and had that chance to draw closer that just missed.
Hendersonville standout Aniyah Frady followed that miss with back-to-back 3-pointers, and the Bearcats were on their way to a 13-0 run to close the game and that final that didn’t reflect the back-and-forth of the first three-plus quarters.
Alm led Polk Middle with nine points, with Garrett, Dill, Dotson and Preslie Bradley each scoring two.
