BENTON, Tenn. — Polk County girls’ basketball coach Ron Davis was surprised after signing onto CoachT.com Friday, only to read that his ninth-ranked Wildkittens weren’t being given a puncher’s chance to defeat Upperman in the Class AA sectional round Saturday.
“They found out they were playing us and were all giggly,” he said after Polk’s 42-30 win Saturday night. “I guess they won’t be now, will they?”
Maclain Yowarsky scored nine of her team-high 13 points in the final 4:49 of the game, and the Wildkittens finished with a 19-5 run against the fifth-ranked Lady Bees. Polk is going to its first state tournament since 1984.
Polk made five 3s and hit 17 of 19 free throws while negating 6-foot-4 Upperman post Karissa Dyer, who although scoring 16 points was unable to stay on the floor due to her inability to guard the 5-foot-7 Yowarsky.
“We wanted to get the big girl out of the paint,” Davis said. “We knew she would block every shot in there. I told my girls not to shoot layups. We tried a few and she blocked them.”
The Wildkittens closed the game out in style, hitting all 11 of their free throws in the fourth quarter. Davis didn’t go to his bench all game, going with Hollie German, Sara Wilson, Alex Rogers, Stephanie Qualls and Yowarsky for the duration.
“We got tired some, but we did a good job of holding our composure throughout,” Davis said.
Polk (27-5) came out behind a large crowd and built a 13-4 lead after a quarter. Davis decided to slow the game and sometimes Polk held the ball for a minute at a time. The game plan didn’t garner the Wildkittens any extra fans but was effective as they led by double digits until a questionable 3-pointer at the buzzer by Upperman’s Alyson Roberts closed the Lady Bees to within 19-11 at the half.
“It was a hard call to make,” Davis admitted.
The Lady Bees (27-6) started to chip away, tying the game at 23 on a putback by Dyer with 7:01 remaining, then taking a 25-23 lead on a drive by Kayla Biles with 5:57 to go. A minute later, Yowarsky had a three-point play, then after two free throws by Wilson hit back-to-back 3s to give Polk a 34-30 lead with 1:33 to play.
“I told her during a timeout that if I wouldn’t ask her to shoot 3s if I didn’t know she could make them,” Davis said.
Said Yowarsky: “He said that I drain them in practice, so I needed to go ahead and shoot it.”
Qualls had nine points, while Wilson and Rogers had seven apiece with Rogers leading the team in rebounds with nine. German had six points for the Wildkittens.
“We played really well,” said Davis, who is retiring after this season. “Upperman was very confident when they got here. I talked to a few people and I could tell they were. They said they were better than (Region 4 champion) Cannon County.
“This is definitely a great one to go out on.”
McMinn Central won 62-54 at Cannon County to advance also to the Class AA state tournament.