5A-CENTRAL BOYS

Korita gives Bruins late lift

Sophomore Lawson Korita scored Pulaski Academy’s final 12 points as the Bruins held on for a 76-74 victory over Jacksonville on Friday night at Pulaski Academy.

A 6-2 guard, Korita finished with 25 points, 20 in the fourth quarter, as the Bruins (22-4, 10-2) wrapped up the second seed from the 5A-Central conference for the state tournament.

“That was not really the situation we wanted to be in,” said Bruins Coach Roger Franks. “It happened in the Little Rock Christian game when Marcus [Wallace] went out with a concussion. They took us to overtime and Lawson had to take over. And Lawson and Marcus are both capable of doing that when the other one goes out.

“Obviously we had a difficult time playing without Marcus. For him to go out for us, in a game like this against a team like Jacksonville, was really big. They were two things that stood out - he wanted the ball and I think our guys did a good job of getting him the ball.”

The Red Devils (22-4, 12-1) took advantage of a technical foul on Wallace with 3:53 left in the game and quickly turned it into a one-point game. But Jacksonville could do no better than get within one point, twice missing free throws after made baskets that could have tied the score.

Wallace finished with 20 points, Chase Snider had 9 and Chad Michales 8 for Pulaski Academy.

Devin Campbell scored 20 and Sergio Berkley finished with 19, 10 of them on free throws, for Jacksonville. Tedric Wolfe had 12 and Laquawn Smith 10 for the Red Devils.

Sports, Pages 22 on 02/22/2014

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