Although Chattanooga Christian’s girls don’t have a Wilson on their team, they rebounded Tuesday night against Polk County like the basketball had their name on it.
The Lady Chargers out-rebounded the Wildkittens 40-23, including 12 offensive rebounds, in a 60-43 victory at Chattanooga Christian. The home team also benefited from a strong game from junior guard Brandis Dyer, who had 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals and played tough as a primary defender on Polk senior guard Hollie German — a Lee University signee.
The 5-foot-10 German finished with six points and four steals.
CCS posts Chauncey Simmons and Chelsea Jones combined for 33 points and 24 rebounds — nine offensive. Simmons had 23 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks as the Lady Chargers made a conscious effort to get the ball inside, scoring 34 points in the paint.
“We knew we were the bigger team,” CCS coach Pam Hindman said. “They’re one team that we can look at and say that we’re bigger than them. Chauncey and C.J. did a good job of getting position and getting the ball.”
CCS (17-2) took over a close game in the third quarter, going on a 16-3 run in the final 5:48 of the period after Polk’s Alex Rogers cut the lead to 29-25 on a 3-pointer. They stretched the lead to 51-30 in the final period, but 10 consecutive points by the Wildkittens trimmed the lead to 11 with 1:41 to go.
The Lady Chargers put the game away with seven of eight free throws in the final 1:25.
The win served as a little payback from last season, when Polk defeated CCS 49-42 in the Region 3-AA tournament.
“It was nice to be able to get that win back,” Hindman said. “I’ll be honest; I didn’t like our chances going into the game because they had so much experience, and I knew that if we didn’t come out, work hard and play well, we’d get beat because they’d outwork us.”
Rogers was a bright spot for Polk (17-3), finishing with 22 points and nine rebounds.
“We just did a terrible job rebounding — we didn’t do a good job on the defensive board — and we didn’t shoot well,” Polk coach Ron Davis said.
“They played hard and it seemed like they wanted to win more than we did.”