Box Score WINTER HAVEN – Polk State Basketball's sophomores and boosters were celebrated on Wednesday night at the Health Center, but the victory celebration belonged to No. 11 Daytona State College as it completed the season sweep of the Eagles, 98-76.

Polk State (9-17, 4-8 Central Conference) fell behind by 14 early, but used a big first half from sophomore guard Alex Vertus to crawl to within three. Vertus paced the Eagles with a season-high-tying 14 points. A 3-pointer before the buzzer gave Daytona State a 49-43 halftime lead.

The Falcons started the second half strong and never let up. Polk State managed to keep the deficit around 10 points for most of the half before a late 15-2 Daytona State run pushed the lead to 25 and turned the contest into a rout.

"I was hoping to play well enough for our sophomores to go out with a bang," Head Coach Brandon Giles said. "Unfortunately, that did not happen tonight."

Each of Polk State's top three scorers were sophomores. In addition to Vertus, Ashton Howard and George Pridgett finished with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Freshman Dominick Nelson added 10 points.

The Eagles shot just 30% from the field but attempted three times as many free throws as Daytona State. Polk State went 19-for-27 from the charity stripe. Daytona State shot 42% for the game.

Jacob Crews led the Falcons with a game-high 20 points. Nic McClain and Ky Stattmann each added 16 points in the win. Stattman led Daytona State with nine rebounds. Josue Grullon finished with 15 points in the victory.

Polk State will play its next two games on the road. The Eagles will go for the season sweep of Florida State College at Jacksonville on Saturday. Tip time is set for 2 p.m.