Wolverines’ rally falls just short in loss to Patriots

Polk County dug itself an early hole Tuesday night, spent the rest of the game trying to climb out and came ever so close to doing just that.

All of which only made for a frustrating evening for the Wolverines.

Staked to a double-digit lead in the first quarter, Madison staved off a pair of Polk County rallies over the final three periods, including a fourth-quarter run that nearly turned the game the Wolverines’ way but instead left the Patriots with a 48-46 Western Highlands Conference victory.

Madison (11-5, 5-2) scored the game’s first nine points, led by 15 late in the third period and by 10 with four minutes remaining in the game. And that’s when things got interesting.

A Hayley Kropp basket at the 3:10 mark, an Autumn Owen basket at the 2:48 mark and a three-point play by Alana Seay with 2:03 left cut Madison’s lead to 46-43. The Wolverines (7-9, 2-4) missed two shots on their next possession, but again got the ball and cut Madison’s lead to two with 39 seconds left on a Kropp free throw.

Madison added a free throw of its own with 27 seconds remaining, but Kropp drew a foul and made both free throws with 11.9 seconds remaining to make it 47-46, the closest Polk had been since the game began.

Madison’s Bailey Cantrell hit the second of two foul shots with 7.7 seconds left to push the Patriots’ advantage back to two. Polk County worked to get the ball to Kropp, who began to drive the lane and seemed to draw contact as she did. But no foul was called, and the final buzzer sounded before Polk could get a shot.

“It’s the story of our season,” said Polk County head coach Brandy Alm. “We needed a couple more minutes.”

What Polk County didn’t need were the first six minutes of the game, when Madison raced to a 17-4 lead. The Patriots were able to score several baskets in transition, beating the Polk defense down the floor for easy layups while often limiting the Wolverines to a single shot on their end.

Polk, though, began to rally in the second, cutting Madison’s margin to 20-16 with 2:11 left in the half. Madison’s Alex Nix hit two big 3-pointers in the final two mintues before Owen and Kropp each scored to make it 26-20 at the half.

“We woke up and decided to get back in our transition defense,” Alm said of holding Madison to 29 points over the final three periods. “We started boxing out, and that eliminated the offensive rebounds. And we cut down on their easy baskets at the rim.”

The margin was still six midway through the third period when Madison put together an 11-2 run to take a 41-26 lead. The Wolverines would outscore Madison 20-7 from that point.

Owen again matched her career high with 22 points, with Kropp adding 19 points and 15 rebounds. Seay had three points and four rebounds, with Bella Marino scoring two. Ansley Lynch had eight rebounds and Kendall Hall had four rebounds.

Kristen Davids had 18 points to lead Madison. Polk County held Madison’s leading scorer, junior Brooke Vilcinskas, to one point.