HAMILTON - Three games in, there's one word that describes the

Lady Pirates the best.

Relentless.

"In these past three games I've been really pleased with the

effort," Polson head coach Randy Kelley said. "This is the most

scrappy team I've coached and this one is relentless."

Ask anyone at the Tip-off tournament two weeks ago and they'll

probably show you the wounds they're still licking from the Lady

Pirates press defense. And ask Hamilton, which has plenty of

scrappiness itself, but couldn't quite get past Polson in a 53-46

overtime win by the Lady Pirates (3-0).

HAMILTON - Three games in, there's one word that describes the Lady Pirates the best.

Relentless.

"In these past three games I've been really pleased with the effort," Polson head coach Randy Kelley said. "This is the most scrappy team I've coached and this one is relentless."

Ask anyone at the Tip-off tournament two weeks ago and they'll probably show you the wounds they're still licking from the Lady Pirates press defense. And ask Hamilton, which has plenty of scrappiness itself, but couldn't quite get past Polson in a 53-46 overtime win by the Lady Pirates (3-0).

Polson had a tall task in figuring out what to do with Hamilton freshman phenom Taylor Goligoski, whose three-point shooting had averaged her 20 points per game in her first two contests. The Lady Pirates had an answer in though, junior guard Anna DiGiallonardo.

"We did a little box out and put Anna on her," Polson head coach Randy Kelley said. "She did a really good job staying up with that girl."

Kelley said that DiGiallonardo was impressive on both ends of the court, holding Goligoski to 12 points while scoring nine points herself in the first half en route to a 13-point performance.

"Hamilton is young and they shoot the three ball really well," Kelley said. "I was surprised with how well they shot the ball."

Polson took the early 13-9 lead in the first quarter but Hamilton battled back to tie it up 21-21 at halftime. The Lady Broncs then opened up a four-point lead of their own in the third quarter but the Lady Pirates battled back to force overtime.

Senior post Riley Kenney scored 14 of her 18 points in the second half and gave Polson a boost. The Lady Pirates held Hamilton to just four points in the extra period to come away with the 53-46 victory.

Along with Kenney and DiGiallonardo's contributions, Polson also got nine points from junior post Heidi Rausch and great efforts from the Banner sisters, Mackenzie and Macall. Kelley said he liked that the Lady Pirates limited their turnovers to just 16 in four and a half quarters.

"It was a good game for the girls and I thought they played hard and took care of the ball," Kelley said.

Polson will hit the road again and play at Frenchtown at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday for their first conference game of the season. Like Hamilton, the Lady Pirates will look to limit a star player.

"We're going to have to come up with a defensive scheme for Sarah Lester and plan to limit her," Kelley said.

The coach also said that the shooting was a bit off in their game against Hamilton and would like to see better outside scoring. One thing though he wanted to stress was the impressive amount of effort this squad continues to play with.

And that's something that opposing teams are going to have to deal with, since these girls are... well, relentless.

POLSON @ HAMILTON

Polson - 13 - 8 - 8 - 13 - 11 - 53

Ham. - 9 - 12 - 12 - 9 - 4 - 46

Lady Pirates scoring - Mackenzie Banner 4, Mariah Hamel 6, Anna DiGiallonardo 13, Riley Kenney 18, Heidi Rausch 9, Macall Banner 1, Jessica Bagnell 2