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Mountain Heritage point guard Spencer Bishop takes the ball into traffic in a disappointing overtime loss to Polk County in Burnsville last week. Heritage will be on the road this week at Owen on Tuesday and at home vs Thomas Jefferson Academy on Friday. Photos by David Grindstaff

The Mountain Heritage varsity boy’s basketball team was trying to keep hold of second place in the Western Highlands Conference standings and recover from an extended road trip when they met up with league foes Hendersonville and Polk County last week.

The Cougars gave the Bearcats a good fight before faltering in the 4th quarter of their road game on Tuesday night and they were in prime position to knock off Polk County for the second time this season in a home contest on Friday night. But it was not to be.

The Wolverines erased a five-point deficit in the final three minutes of regulation to force overtime, and in the extra session they outplayed the Cougars to escape town with an 84-79 win.

Polk (11-8, 5-4) forged ahead by five with a minute and a half left in regulation but Heritage (10-8, 6-3) quickly tied the game at 65-65 with free throws by Eli Buckner and an old fashion three point play by Alex Biggerstaff.

The Cougars led 70-68 with 4.7 seconds remaining, following a free throw by Lucas King, when Polk in bounded the ball and Alec Philpott drove the length of the court for a lay up to tie the score at 70-70 and send the game into an extra frame.

In that four minute OT period Heritage drew first blood on an Austin Taylor jumper for a 72-70 lead. The Cougars led by as many as four points in the overtime but Polk nailed down the victory in the final minute at the free throw line.

A jumper by Alex Biggerstaff cut the Polk lead to three points with 9 seconds to play. But Ben Stockdale, who scored 7 of the 14 overtime points for Polk, nailed two free throws with 2.1 seconds left to seal the win for the Wolverines.

Philpott, who scored six straight points for the Wolverines to open the fourth quarter and brought Polk all the way back to force overtime, finished with 25 points before fouling out in the OT.

Heritage had four players scoring in double figures, led by the 22 point performance of Alex Biggerstaff. Spencer Bishop netted 16 points, Eli Buckner contributed 15 and Austin Taylor finished with 10 points for the Cougars.

At Hendersonville, Heritage led 36-32 at halftime and had the league leading and undefeated Bearcats worried going into the final eight minutes after trailing by only two points.

But Hendersonville (16-0, 9-0), with the aid of 11 made free throws, slowly pulled away in the 4th quarter for a 79-65 victory.

Alex Biggerstaff, who had 15 first-half points, finished with 27 to lead Heritage, and Eli Buckner added 18.