On Wednesday, Dec. 1, the Polk County Wolverines basketball teams held their home opener versus the West Henderson Falcons.

Both the Wolverines varsity and junior varsity mens teams lost, but both of the girls teams came out on top.

The night started well for the Wolverines as the JV girls won a close contest 40-37, with Makenzie White leading the Wolverines with 16 points.

The Varsity girls continued this momentum, winning a close one against a good West team. Polk jumped out to an early lead thanks to Melinda Morgan, who rebounded well on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. She also scored 11 points. The first half ended with Polk in the lead 22-15.

When the second half started, West came out with a renewed intensity and went on a 7-0 run to tie the game early. Polk bounced back, following the lead of Jamie Hrobak, who cleaned up most of Polks missed shots and consistently finished in the paint. Hrobak ended the game with 11 points.

It was a very physical game, with elbows being thrown on both sides. As the game came down to the wire, Polk opened up a slim lead. With the help of Alyssa Montgomerys (#11) clutch free throws, the Lady Wolverines&bsp; iced the game and held on to win 53-48.

The boys varsity game started off much like the girls varsity game, with Polk jumping out to an early lead thanks to the hot hands of Stephen Staley and Deion Twitty behind the arc.

Twitty went on to lead the team scoring with 16 points, and Staley was right behind with 14.

The game was plagued with a ton of fouls on both sides. The first quarter ended with an unprecedented total of 10 fouls.

As the first half ended the Wolverines still held on to a slim 33-31 lead. In the second half, however, West proved to have just a little bit more depth as they outlasted Polk 59-54.

The Wolverines faced the Landrum Cardinals on Friday; look for a story on that game in the Friday, Dec. 10 Bulletin.

Jordan DeVere is a senior at Polk County High School.