In the Western Highlands Conference each team plays twice on a “home and home” basis. In the first meeting versus Madison, Polk was outscored early and never threatened, which eventually caused their defeat with a score of 57 – 45.

This time Polk was down just two points at half time 21-19. They came back to outscore the Patriots of Madison 17-7 in the third and 13-11 in the fourth for a 51-39 victory.

The Polk County girls’ varsity started out the conference season 0-4. Understandably they may have had their heads down for a long season, but they have made a significant turn around and are “coming together” at just the right time evidenced by four straight wins.

Coach Craig Culbreth said they had a strong performance on both ends of the court.

“We played really good defense holding them to 39 points and shot 52 percent in the second half,” Culbreth said.

He went on say they also overcame some adversity.

“Savannah Deaver was hurt in the second quarter, so we had a lot of other girls step up,” he added.

Defense was once again a key to the victory, but with a different approach this time. At Hendersonville, full court pressure caused turnovers and steals, but the Madison guards handled the press well. Seeing this Coach Culbreth went to a seldom used zone that proved very effective. They held Madison to only 26 percent shooting from the 2-point range and 20 percent from 3-point range (3-15), which will win most basketball games.