Men's basketball team drops Polk State College

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team hit some big shots late to defeat Polk State College in a Central Conference game Wednesday night at Titan Field House.

The Titans improved to 16-5 overall and 6-0 in the conference with the 82-77 victory.

Eastern Florida State College led the entire game but with 2:25 remaining, Polk State College cut the lead to three points on back-to-back George Pridgett baskets with two minutes and 25 seconds remaining. A Caleb Byrd basket made it four points again, but another foul sent Ashton Howard to the line where he hit both free throws.

With the clock running and under 30 seconds remaining, Jaden Witter-Watts drove the baseline and hit a big shot for a 79-75 lead. Rod Jones would make two free throws with 22.1 seconds left but Byrd and Witter-Watts hit their free throws in the final 20 seconds to give the Titans the victory.

Byrd finished with 19 points while Witter-Watts had 16 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Andres Burney recorded his 11th double-double of the season, scoring 16 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.

Eric Parnell hit a big 3-pointer late in the second half and finished with 11 points in the game.

Jones led Polk State College with 29 points in the loss.

Eastern Florida State College has now won seven games in a row and leads the Central Conference heading into a Saturday matchup with Santa Fe College. The Titans won the first meeting of the season and look to pick up the series win on Saturday. Game time is 4 p.m. at Titan Field House and the game will be shown live on WEFS-TV which is channel 9 or 455 on Spectrum, 68 on DirecTV, 30 on Dish and 68 on AT&T Uverse. The game will also be shown live online at EFSC Titans YouTube page.