The ball swished through the net as senior Sam Polovina scored a three-point goal. Playing at Tuscola on Jan. 6, Polovina scored 20 points and received credit for two assists and eight rebounds.
Polovina’s performance led the team to a 48-46 conference win.
“We started our season off rough because we lost our first eight games, but I think we started to get it together in conference play,” Polovina said. “I think we’re getting the hang of it because we’ve won four of the last six games.”
Polovina was right when he said the team started to get it together. In fact, the team has completely turned the season around, winning 11 of the last 16 games. The team is currently 11-14 overall, 7-7 in Western North Carolina Athletic Conference play.
“I think we are a completely different team,” junior Colby Kilpatrick said. “At the beginning of the year, we were trying to figure out our identity and how we could play together. But now we’ve figured out how to work together as a team.”
The Falcons turn-around started when they beat Hendersonville, 65-46, on Dec. 17. They showed exactly how much they had improved when they defeated Madison, 66-26, in spite of a tough 37-50 loss to the same team weeks earlier.
“We felt good about the win against Madison,” Coach Billy Phillips said. “Compared to the first time we played them, our team chemistry was much better. As a group, we have learned to play harder and understand everyone’s role on the team.”
Phillips said he is proud of the hard work the team has shown in practice and on the court. According to Phillips, Polovina, senior Zack Crane and junior Tristan Thomas have worked especially hard to improve. Polovina is the top scorer on the team with 385 points so far, and Thomas has 222 points.
After defeating East Henderson, Brevard and Tuscola, the team picked up a win at North Henderson, 55-42.
“We’ve surprised ourselves this season,” Kilpatrick said. “If we can turn everything around now, we can just keep going and winning more games.”
On Friday the WNCAC tournament began at West. The Falcons played North Henderson.
