Box Score WINTER HAVEN – It took a gutsy effort on Tuesday night, but Polk State Basketball found a way to come out victorious in its home opener against State College of Florida-Manatee, 71-65.
Sophomore guard
George Pridgett led the Eagles (1-2) with a career-high 32 points. Pridgett finished 14-for-20 from the free throw line and knocked down four of Polk State's seven made three-pointers.
"We're going to need these types of efforts from him," Polk State Head Coach
Brandon Giles said. "I'm not surprised. It's always a beautiful thing when your point guard can fill it up like that."
Polk State dealt with plenty of adversity throughout the contest, including a 10-point deficit following a 12-0 run by the Manatees midway through the opening half. By halftime, however, the Eagles retook the lead, thanks to a 13-1 run.
"The message Coach Giles kept preaching during the timeouts is we were going to be fine," Pridgett said. "We just kept believing in his message."
After cutting the 27-17 lead to six,
Kenny Burns drew Polk State even at 28 with a pair of three-pointers.
Ashton Howard scored the final bucket of the half to give Polk State a 30-28 lead at the break.
The second half featured four lead changes. Polk State led by as many as 11 points in the second half before holding off the Manatees. Pridgett scored 22 of his points after halftime, including two free throws with 7:10 left that put the Eagles ahead for good.
"Whatever it took for us to get our first win today (we were going to do)," Pridgett said. "We came in with a must-win mentality."
Aside from Pridgett, the only other Polk State player to score in double figures was
Naadhir Wood, who finished with 10 points and nine rebounds. Wood scored six of the Eagles' first eight points. In total, eight different players registered points for Polk State.
"The bench really stepped up –
AJ Hamrick,
Kenny Burns,
Dominick Nelson,
Jeremiah Russell," Giles said. "That was big for us. It was a great overall team win. The biggest thing for us was being able to show the maturity down the stretch."
Nelson finished with eight points on the night but came up big late in the contest. Over the final three minutes, Nelson knocked down a jumper and a pair of free throws. In both cases, he made it a three-possession game.
Skylar Wicks led State College of Florida with 26 points while shooting 10-for-20 from the field and 4 of 7 from deep. Coby Harraway also shot 4-for-7 from distance, tallying 17 points in the loss.
After playing three games in five days to open the season, Polk State will have a week off before traveling to take on Miami Dade College.
"This will boost our morale," Pridgett said after the win. "We got ourselves off the mat today."
