Staff Photo by Allison Carter/Chattanooga Times Free Press – Friday Maclain Yowarsky, left, defends as Jessica Fikkert plays offense during a basketball game at CCS.Polk County’s plan at halftime of Friday’s girls’ high school basketball game at Chattanooga Christian consisted of coming out in the third quarter and trimming its eight-point deficit to at least half that by the end of the period. Then the goal would become overtaking the Lady Chargers in the fourth.
There’s nothing like a plan that comes together.
The Wildkittens did what they set out to do. Sparked by a run of 10 consecutive points midway of the second half, they went on for a 53-47 victory.
Ginger Harness was hired as the successor to longtime head coach Ron Davis at Polk County, but she’s been on maternity leave throughout the first part of the season. Assistant coach Johnny Hayes has guided the Wildkittens to a 9-1 start – the loss being to Chattanooga Christian (7-2) when the teams played in Benton on Nov. 30 – while the team awaits Harness’s return after the Christmas break.
Polk County’s Lauren Silvers made two free throws that got the deficit down to 38-35 with 10.7 seconds left in the third quarter. The Lady Wildcats then scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter with Maclain Yowarsky twice scoring after rebounding her own miss and Haley Richmond contributing two layups – one off a steal.
“We came out in the fourth quarter and got after it,” Hayes said. “We made some great plays on defense and rebounded the ball, finally.”
Polk County did not have another field goal after reaching the bonus with 2:51 to play. From there 10-of-17 free-throw shooting proved to be good enough.
“We had the same problem we had in the first meeting with Chattanooga Christian tonight, and that’s not being able to shoot free throws,” Hayes said. “We were plagued with it again. At least we got there enough that we made enough to win.”
Before the Wildkittens’ march to the free-throw line began, Presley Watson made a 3-point shot from the right wing to get CCS within 43-41. It was the Lady Chargers’ only 3-pointer of the second half after they had made five in the first half, along with two other jumpers in the 18-foot range.
Lady Chargers coach Pam Hindman said they “settled” for the 3-point shot too often, and when those quit falling, the lead started falling.
“We didn’t play with any passion tonight, or any determination,” Hindman said. “We’re struggling and I can’t lay a finger on why. We didn’t play with any consistency; we didn’t defend; we didn’t rebound. We didn’t even play offense tonight. We just stood around.”
Although the Lady Chargers led throughout the middle portion of the game, they trailed 7-0 at the beginning.
“We weren’t ready from the start,” Hindman said. “That’s another problem.”
Yowarsky led Polk with 17 points. Stephanie Qualls added 13.
Watson’s 12 points paced CCS. Brandis Dyer, who was burdened by foul trouble, and Mercedes Owens each totaled eight.
E-mail Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com