Brandy Alm has talked all season about having her Wolverine basketball squad peak at the right time.
The time may be at hand.
Polk County won its fourth straight game on Wednesday night, using an inside-outside balance on offense and its trademark scrappy defense to top Avery County 48-34 in a Western Highlands Conference game at Polk.
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The Wolverines (13-8, 5-5) matched last year’s victory total thanks in large part to a 14-plus minute stretch from the second period until the fourth when Avery (9-12, 5-5) scored just four points, including a 3-pointer in the third period for the team’s only basket in that timeframe.
Polk, meanwhile, opened the third period looking to push the ball inside to senior post Sarah Phipps. Out of the country for the first meeting with Avery, which the Vikings won 49-39, Phipps gave Avery a taste of what it missed, scoring eight straight points as the Wolverines built a 39-25 lead by the end of the third.
“We talked about (feeding Phipps) at halftime,” Alm said. “Their big girl was in foul trouble. It’s fun to watch Sarah work in the post when she gets on a roll.
“She had the post and we established our inside-outside game. Watching that was a lot of fun.”
Polk County built its lead to as much as 19 points in the fourth period before Avery closed to within the final margin.
The Wolverines followed a back-and-fourth first period by beginning to seize the upper hand in the second. Phipps and Kara Overholt each scored four points in an 8-0 spurt that gave Polk a 23-15 edge midway through the second. The lead remained at eight until Avery closed to 27-22 at the half.
Hayley Kropp had 19 points to lead Polk County. The Wolverines held Avery’s Kylie Polsgrove, one of the league’s top scorers, to just eight points, six of those in the first half.
“The last time we played them, we tried a diamond-and-one and we shut her down in the first half, but the other girls hurt us,” Alm said. “Tonight we decided to sit in a zone and make sure we knew where she was. We switched defenses a lot, but it was a matter of knowing where she was at.”
Fighting to stay in the top half of the WHC and earn a first-round home game in the conference’s postseason tournament, Polk County travels to Owen on Friday for a key league battle.
Polk County Scoring
Hayley Kropp 19, Sarah Phipps 12, Kara Overholt 9, Ashley Kropp 4, Savannah Ross 2, Autumn Owen 2
