Polk girls narrowly miss big win over Madison

A signature win for Polk County’s girls basketball squad is coming. It very nearly arrived Thursday night.

The Wolverines were inches away from a dramatic upset of Madison, but Hayley Kropp’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer bounced off the rim, up in the air and fell awry, leaving Polk County with a 47-45 loss to the Patriots in Western Highlands Conference action at Polk County.

The game was the second of three straight games against the WHC’s top teams. Polk (8-7, 2-5) led conference leader Mountain Heritage in the fourth quarter last week, then nearly defeated third place Madison (14-4, 6-2). The Wolverines travel Friday night to face Avery, currently in second place.

“We’ve faced two of the top teams and gone right down to the wire with them,” said Polk County head coach Craig Culbreth. “I feel like we’re right on the verge of turning things around.”

Up by eight with 3:27 left in the second quarter, Polk County’s offense suddenly cooled. Madison would outscore the Wolverines 20-3 over the game’s next nine minutes, building a 33-24 lead with 2:12 left in the third period. The lead eventually reached 10 before India Godlock swished a long 3-pointer at the third-period buzzer.

Lyric Flood then opened the fourth quarter with another 3-pointer, and the Wolverines began to fight back. Polk pulled within three points midway through the fourth period, but still trailed by five, 47-42, with 31 seconds left.

Kropp drilled a 3-pointer from the wing with 18 seconds left to pull the Wolverines within two. Polk County was then whistled for an intentional foul with 10 seconds left, but Shana Shelton missed both free throws, and Madison turned the ball over with six seconds left. Kropp took the inbounds pass and weaved her way upcourt through the Madison defense before launching her running 3-point attempt from some 25 feet. It very nearly was a winner.

“It seems like lately we’ve had a bad quarter every game,” Culbreth said. “We had one against Mountain Heritage. We’re playing really well right now, but we’re having that one bad quarter that we’ve got to get over.

“This is a pretty good team, very aggressive, and we had a shot at the end to win it.”

Polk County led 17-11 at the end of the first quarter and led by eight much of the second quarter before Madison rallied to within three, 24-21, at halftime. Working the ball inside to Lexi Ammons, who finished with 17 points, the Patriots then held Polk County scoreless for all but 56 seconds of the third quarter, Kropp finally breaking that drought with two free throws.

Kropp had 16 points to lead the Wolverines, with Godlock and Flood each adding eight. Brooke Vilcinskas added 13 for Madison.

Polk County Scoring
Hayley Kropp 16, Lyric Flood 8, India Godlock 8, Savannah Ross 6, Ashley Kropp 5, Sarah Phipps 2