Polk made the long trip to Avery still looking for it first conference win.

The Lady Wolverines played well; matching Avery point-for-point for most of the game. However, they were not able to overcome the first quarter deficit of being outscored 18- 9 eventually losing by a score of 76-63.

After the initial period Polk outscored The Lady Vikings 37-36 in the second and third quarters. However, late in the fourth quarter with Polk still down 8 points they had to begin fouling to attempt to make up the deficit. Avery hit their free throws down the stretch that made it a somewhat misleading final score.

“We played one of our better games, (but) we were 12 of 25 from the free throw line, so that hurt us. Avery is always one of the top teams in the conference and they are again this year,” said Coach Craig Culbreth. “We were only down by eight with a minute to go so we had to foul and ended up losing by 13.”

Polk had four players in double figures led by Haley Kropp with 20 points, 10 rebounds, five steals and two assists. Katie Ruff and Savannah Deaver did a good job on the boards with eight and seven rebounds respectively. The Lady Wolverines did suffer from high turnovers totaling 24 for the game, compared to 10 for Avery.

Avery was led by Lauren Burleson with 21 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two 3-point shots and also had three other players in double figures as well.

Game stats:

Avery: 18;  21; 15; 22;— 76

Polk County: 9;  21; 16; 17;— 63

Polk: Haley Kropp 20, Savannah Deaver 11, Kara Overholt 10, Katie Ruff 10, Lyric Flood 6.

Polk is now 6-8 overall and 0-4 in conference. Their next game is tonight at Thomas Jefferson.