Box Score MELBOURNE – Polk State Basketball mounted a furious rally on Wednesday night, but in the end, No. 24 Eastern Florida State College did just enough to hold on for an 82-77 victory.
The Eagles (7-13, 2-4 Central Conference) whittled a 16-point second-half deficit down to two, but Caleb Byrd and Jaden Witter-Watts came through with clutch baskets for the Titans. Polk State closed to within two points on three separate occasions over the final two minutes. Only once, however, did Polk State have the ball with a chance to tie.
Trailing 80-77 with 13 seconds left,
George Pridgett's game-tying three-point attempt came up just short. Eastern Florida State was able to ice the game with a pair of free throws.
"I'm proud of the effort we gave down the stretch," Polk State Head Coach
Brandon Giles said. "All in all, us not making shots was due to us not creating enough good shots for each other. The name of the game is making shots. That was the difference tonight."
Giles noted that Polk State attempted 21 more shots than Eastern Florida State (75-54). The Eagles, however, shot just 35% from the field. The Titans shot better than 44% from the field and made six more free throws than Polk State.
Polk State trailed 41-31 at halftime but opened the second half with six straight points. That would be as close as the Eagles would get until the final three minutes.
Following a four-point play from Polk State's
Alex Vertus to cut the lead to 55-48, it looked as though the Titans may run away with the contest. Eastern Florida State answered with a 9-0 run, but
Rod Jones,
AJ Hamrick,
Dominick Nelson,
Ashton Howard, and Pridgett came up big down the stretch for Polk.
After two free throws from Hamrick cut the lead to 74-67 with less than three minutes to go, back-to-back steals in the backcourt led to layups by Pridgett to cut the deficit to three. The Eagles' final six points came from the free throw line.
Jones led Polk State with a game-high 29 points. Pridgett tallied 14 points to go with team-highs of three assists and four steals. Hamrick and Nelson added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Howard led the team with 14 rebounds to go with six points.
Byrd finished with 19 points to lead five Eastern Florida State players in double figures. Witter-Watts and Andres Burney each added 16 points in the victory.
With the win, the Titans clinch the season series against Polk State after winning in Winter Haven to open conference play on Jan. 7. The Eagles will host the final meeting between the schools on Feb. 11. Polk State will now prepare to play a second straight nationally ranked team when it travels to take on No. 18 Daytona State College on Saturday.
