Brevard, shooting woes spoil Wolverines’ season opener in 61-58 setback

Down the stretch Tuesday, Brevard finally found its outside shooting touch. Polk County, meanwhile, never quite hit its groove on the closer stuff.

And that proved the difference in the Wolverines’ home and season opener, Brevard building a fourth-quarter lead, then holding off a determined Polk comeback for a 61-58 victory in non-conference play.

Polk County (0-1) led the entire first half, up by as many as 14 points in the second quarter. But Brevard’s Collin McCracken, who nearly carried the Devils offense by himself in the final two quarters, hit a 3-pointer to close the third period and give the Devils a 37-34 lead, then hit another to open the fourth and added a pull-up fast-break jumper to give Brevard a 42-34 edge.

The Wolverines still trailed by eight, 48-40, with 3:57 left, but cut the margin to two with 1:38 remaining as Jamal Wheeler hit three consecutive 3-pointers and Jason Chupp added a pair of free throws after a Wheeler steal. Trailing by one with a minute left, the Wolverines had a golden opportunity to take the lead, but missed three straight shots in the paint, then turned the ball over on an inbounds play.

Brevard took advantage and built the lead back to four, 59-55, with 28.5 seconds left. Wheeler was then fouled with four seconds on a 3-point attempt – his shot nearly going in despite the foul – and hit all three free throws to cut the deficit to one. But Isaac Bingle hit two free throws with 1.8 seconds remaining to seal the Blue Devil win.

“The story of the game was that we missed too many free throws and too many layups,” said Polk County head coach Josh McEntire. The Wolverines were 19-of-33 at the foul line. “If we make our free throws and we make our layups, we win the basketball game.

“I’m so proud of the way we kept fighting. The execution wasn’t there, but the fight was there.”

With Brevard (1-0) icy from the field in the opening half, Polk County slowly built its 14-point second-period cushion. An 10-0 run to open the second period largely accomplished that, Wheeler scoring six of his team-high 25 points in that flurry. Freshman Holden Owens capped the run with a jumper with 1:57 left in the second period to make it 19-5.

Brevard finally scored for the first time in the quarter with 1:22 left, then scored six points in the final 32 seconds to make it 21-17 at halftime.

McCracken then took over for the Devils, scoring 24 of his game-high 26 points in the second half as Brevard opened the third period with a 10-0 run. The Wolverines fought back and tied the game before McCracken’s trey at the end of the quarter gave the Devils a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

“I was really pleased with the effort of our big guys,” McEntire said. “We rebounded the ball well. We’ve just got to learn to capitalize on our free throws and layups and execute better offensively.”

Polk County Scoring
Jamal Wheeler 25, Jason Chupp 10, Jaylin Wilkins 8, Wes Mullis 8, Holden Owens 5, Daniel Painter 2