Polk County used a pressure defense to create turnovers and force bad shots to move to an early lead against

Thomas Jefferson and their second conference win Jan. 11 with a 65-54 victory.

Polk was led in scoring by freshman Jamal Tanner with a season high of 17 points. Several of his points came in the fourth quarter to help seal the win. Saquan Miller and Anthony Carson both had 14 points in the win as well.

The Wolverines came out strong jumping to a 15 – 6 first quarter lead and continued to build on it resulting in a 36-20 half-time score.

The Gryphons made a third quarter push out scoring Polk 19-13 and closed the gap to as few as 5 points. But Polk scored a couple of consecutive baskets to rebuild the lead.
Coach Josh McEntire said he liked the way they kept their poise.

“We just kept playing hard and never got down or dropped our heads when we faced adversity,” McEntire said.

They then maintained that lead throughout most of the fourth quarter.
Coach McEntire felt it was the best effort of the season in terms of consistent effort.

“This is the hardest we have played for a full game. We had a lot of steals, particularly in the first half and forcing them into bad shots,” he said. “We turned those bad shots into points for us; fast break points, really getting up and down the court well.”

He went on to comment on some key players’ efforts.

“Jordan Smith and Ben Stockdale both had quite a few rebounds and Jamal Tanner and Anthony Carson had a lot of steals; several leading to easy baskets,” he added.

Stats: 

Polk County 65, Thomas Jefferson 54

Polk: 15; 21; 13; 16; – 65

TJ: 6; 14; 19; 15; – 54

Polk — Tanner 17, Miller 14, Carson 14, Philpott 6, Hines 6, Smith 4, Stockdale 2, Mullis 2

TJ — Freeland 16, Freeland 10, Mintz 8, Fenner 9, Borders 7, Carder 4

The varsity boys of Polk are now 6-9 and 2-3 WHC. They play conference foe Owen tonight at home.