Landrum pulls away late to top Polk, 69-53

Three games in four nights, not to mention a very good Landrum team, finally took a toll Friday on Polk County.

Landrum scored the first seven points of the third quarter and gradually pulled away to hand the Wolverines a 69-53 setback before a packed gym at Polk County.

The Wolverines (2-2) trailed much of the first half, but rallied for a late lead and took a 32-30 advantage at the intermission as Jamal Wheeler buried a long 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer.

But Landrum’s opening surge in the third period gave the Cardinals the lead for good. Polk still trailed by four with 3:45 left in the third, but Landrum (1-1) closed the quarter with a 12-4 run to take a 51-39 margin into the fourth quarter.

“I think the effort we got 90 percent of the time was great,” said Polk County head coach Josh McEntire. “A little of the blame for this falls on the coach, who scheduled an away game at Brevard the night before a big game.

“We played with passion, we played with energy, we played with want. We just fell short in the second half.”

Poor free-throw shooting again plagued the Wolverines, who went 12-of-26 at the foul line. Landrum also struggled at the stripe, going 3-for-11.

“The difference was we missed free throws and we missed open looks. They hit open looks and we didn’t,” McEntire said. “That’s a really, really good basketball team.”

Down 16-7 late in the first period, Polk County began to rally, thanks in part to Wheeler, who ended the first period with a dunk and had another on a fast break early in the second, bringing the home crowd to its feet.

Landrum quieted the crowd for a moment with a flurry that pushed its lead to seven, 24-17, midway through the second period. The Wolverines reeled off nine straight points, six from Wheeler and a 3-pointer from Jaymes Wingo, to grab a 29-26 advantage and then took that two-point lead at the break.

Landrum built on its third-quarter lead in the fourth period, extending the margin to 15 before Polk briefly rallied. Wes Mullis hit a jumper, Wheeler had a steal and layup and Holden Owens hit two free throws to make it 56-47 with 2:39 left. Landrum pushed the lead back to 13 before Wingo completed a rare four-point play, drilling a 3-pointer from the wing and hitting the free throw to make it 60-51 with 1:57 left.

That would be as close as the Wolverines would get.

“When we move the ball well and we get in our spots on defense, we are a good team,” McEntire said. “I feel really good about this team right now. We’re starting to get our rotations down and getting where we want to get.”

Wheeler scored 26 points for the third straight game to lead Polk, which also got 14 points and six rebounds from Wingo. Mullis added five points, Owens and Dillion Overholt each had three and Daniel Painter had two.

Jacob Corn had 19 points to lead Landrum, with Foster Bridges scoring 14 and Tre Smith scoring 13.