Third-quarter drought dooms Polk girls in loss to Avery

Take away a five-minute stretch of the third quarter, and Polk County’s girls basketball squad more than held its own Wednesday night against Avery.

But the Vikings outscored the Wolverines 15-0 in that stretch, the turning point of a Western Highlands Conference clash that ended with Avery taking a 53-39 win at Polk County.

Polk County (5-5, 0-3) held a 23-20 halftime lead and still led 29-25 when Sarah Phipps hit a short jumper at the 5:36 mark of the third period. But Avery (11-3, 2-0) turned up the intensity on its full-court pressure, forcing several Wolverine turnovers in its 15-point rally. Jodi Poore and Bri Heaton drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to cap the run, which gave Avery a 40-29 lead with 2:22 left in the third period.

Phipps finally broke the drought with a free throw with 45 seconds remaining.

“We haven’t played in (20) days. The weather has killed us,” said Polk County head coach Craig Culbreth. “We’ve been practicing, but we must have gotten tired there. We didn’t handle the pressure.

“We got rattled. We didn’t have anybody step up and want to bring the ball up the floor. ”

The Wolverines did gather themselves for one more run, cutting the deficit to six with 5:46 left to play. Polk County then had a couple of chances to reduce the margin even more, but couldn’t get baskets to fall when needed. Avery closed the game with a 10-2 run to remain undefeated in WHC play.

“We missed 49 shots. We missed a lot of layups. A lot of layups,” Culbreth said. “We did a lot of shooting over the break. But when you get tired, your legs don’t get into it and your shots start falling short.”

Back-to-back baskets by Hayley Kropp and Lyric Flood gave Polk a 7-4 lead midway through the first quarter, and the Wolverines built that lead into a 13-7 margin at the end of the period. Avery spent much of the first half looking to score from the 3-point line, and a trio of threes by Heaton helped the Vikings build a 20-15 advantage. But Phipps and Flood led an 8-0 Polk County run over the final two minutes to give the Wolverines a 23-20 lead at the break.

Phipps finished with 13 points, 15 rebounds and five steals to lead Polk, which returns to action Thursday night at Mitchell.

Polk County Scoring
Sarah Phipps 13, Hayley Kropp 7, Janada Carson 5, India Godlock 4, Ashley Love 4, Lyric Flood 4, Savannah Ross 2