WELLS — The Wells girls basketball team fell to the visiting Poland squad 37-30 in a tight battle Monday night.

Jessica Seeley led Poland with 12 points, while Forward Brousseau added six points to the mix.

Natalie Thurber led the Warriors with 16 points on the evening, most of which came in the first half of play.

The matchup was close from the opening quarter, while each team surrendered little in their respective zones, limiting the amount of shots taken.

Poland jumped out to a fast 4-0 start, but within a minute Wells fired back with four points of their own. At the end of the first quarter, Poland held a 7-4 lead.

Thurber scored Wells’ four points in the first quarter and began the second sharp, hitting the first 3-pointer of the game.

Both teams grinded, with neither team establishing a solid grasp of the momentum. Poland took a slim 17-16 lead into halftime.

The third quarter was a different game for both sides, as Poland and Wells began creating more scoring chances and challenging the opposing defenses,

Each team had big plays in the third quarter, but the Warriors stole the show with big 3-pointers from Leah Tufts and later Sara Ring.

Poland finished the period by scoring the final four points and retook a 29-27 lead heading into the final quarter.

Although Wells fought hard for the entire 32 minutes of action, Poland played their best period in the fourth and outscored Wells 8-3.

Thanks to tight defense in the paint and solid free throw shooting, Poland secured the victory late in the fourth quarter.

Wells coach Don Abbott was impressed with Poland’s strong defense.

“I think they did a good job of playing defense in the mid court. It was a pretty back-and-fourth game to the very end,” said Abbott. “They made the tough plays at the end, rebounds, second chance opportunities, loose balls. Those are the types of plays you need to secure at the end of games and I think they did a better job than we did.”

Although Abbott was pleased with Thurber’s impressive night, he believed that the entire team played well.

“It was good to see her work her way back, she played really well tonight. Basketball is a team sport though, I could go into individual performances but at the end of the day a lot of our players did good things, they just may not have shown up in the box score,” said Abbott. “She did a lot of good things tonight though and hopefully the offensive success will continue.”

Moving forward, Abbott hopes his team will be able to win close games like Monday night.

“I thought we did a lot of things well tonight. I thought we guarded well, shot well for the most part,” said Abbott. “But these are the types of games you have to win down the stretch. This is a game we should have won tonight.”

— Sports Staff Writer Alex Sponseller can be reached at sports@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.