Polk County girls basketball coach Brandy Alm continues to see improvement in her young Wolverine squad. She just wishes there were more and longer stretches of that better play.
Take away the second quarter and first half of the third, and Polk County held its own Friday with visiting Mountain Heritage. But those 12 minutes were played and must be considered, and the Cougars outscored the Wolverines 30-6 in that time en route to a 63-46 victory in a Western Highlands Conference game at Polk.
Mountain Heritage (6-1, 2-0) turned a 7-6 deficit at the end of the first quarter into a 36-13 lead midway through the third period. The Cougars aggressively attacked the basket throughout the game and were able to get numerous layups in the second and third periods to buildi the huge lead.
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But Polk County (3-5, 1-2), despite dressing just seven players for the game, didn’t slip quietly into the night. Led by Autumn Owen and Hayley Kropp, the Wolverines whittled the Mountain Heritage lead down to nine, 38-29, with 1:16 left in the third period, a 16-2 run in less than three minutes that seemed to rattle the Cougars.
But just as quickly as its lead began to disappear, Mountain Heritage recovered and rebuilt it, scoring eight straight points before Kropp buried a long 3-pointer at the end of the quarter for a 46-32 deficit entering the fourth.
The Cougars kept the lead in double digits throughout the fourth quarter to deny Polk any further comeback hopes.
“The girls have so much heart and never quit,” Alm said. “We just have to put four quarters together.
“There are a few things defensively we need to work on. But I feel like we’re still improving. That’s a great basketball team that beat us.”
Kropp finished with 22 points, nine rebounds and five steals, with Owen adding 20 points and six rebounds. Alana Seay had nine rebounds and one point, Ansley Lynch had one point and five rebounds and Mariah Overholt had two points.
Polk County is now off until Dec. 28, when the Wolverines open play in the WNC Wells Fargo Classic tournament in Asheville.
