The crowd was expecting that signature spurt that Kirkwood puts on its opponents to put the game away, but it never came.

Still, the Eagles persevered Friday night at Johnson Hall, downing Parkland, 76-63, behind Tyra Polite's 21 points off the bench.

Kirkwood Coach Kim Muhl explained the Eagles' effort.

“You’ve got to have energy to spurt,” said Muhl. “We had very minimal energy on the court tonight.

“We were very flat tonight. We are a young team and we are going to have games just like this because we need to learn to be more focused and establish an identity.”

Polite led all scorers with her 21 points while Ariel Sneed and Danielle Woolfolk chipped in with nine and eight points, respectively, for the Eagles.

“We were a little sluggish tonight; like we didn’t have enough juice,” said Polite, the freshman guard from Upper Darby, Pa.  “I guess I just did what needed to be done.  We all have each others backs and we got the win.”

“Polite really gave us a great boost out there,” said Muhl.  “We just couldn’t seem to run anything tonight. We never got into a rhythm at all.”

Parkland had three players in double figures.  Ashley Walker had 15, Erin Kelley added 14, and Aimee Iverson had 12.

Kirkwood led the entire game, but never managed to pull away.  The Eagles shot only 55 percent from the foul line and that really prevented them from producing a bigger spread.

"We will have to play better than that tomorrow or we’ll get beat by Illinois Central,” said Muhl.

The Eagles face Illinois Central at 3 p.m. Saturday at Johnson Hall.

PARKLAND (63):  Kelley 5 2-2 14, Wascher 0 3-6, Garnett 0 0-0 0, Hawkins 1 2-2 4, Cross 0 4-6 4, Iverson 4 3-5 12, Vaughn 0 2-2 2, Klocke 3 0-1 7, Walker 7 1-1 15, Hartman 1 0-0 2, Kohlbecker 0 0-0 0, Hill 0 0-0 0.  Totals 21 17-25 63.

KIRKWOOD (76):  Sneed 4 0-0 9, Woolfolk 2 3-4 8, Tuttle 2 2-6 7, Fallon 2 2-2 7, Clark 1 3-6 5, Silva 1 4-7 6, Polite 8 3-5 21, Larson 0 0-0 0, Haynes 3 1-2 7, Martensen 0 1-2 1, Kelso 2 0-0 4, Bockholt 0 1-2 1, Robinson 0 0-0 0.  Totals 25 20-36 76.

Halftime – Kirkwood 35, Parkland 31. 3-point goals – Kirkwood 6 (Sneed 1, Woolfolk 1, Tuttle 1, Fallon 1, Polite 2), Parkland 4 (Kelley 2, Iverson 1, Klocke 1). Fouled out – none. Technical foul – Parkland Coach Ramage.