{"id":63423,"date":"2026-03-06T15:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63423"},"modified":"2026-03-06T15:05:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:05:19","slug":"polk-state-basketballs-dailey-mccray-earn-all-conference-honors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/06\/polk-state-basketballs-dailey-mccray-earn-all-conference-honors\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk State Basketball\u2019s Dailey, McCray earn All-Conference honors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Polk State Basketball ended the regular season as the only FCSAA Division I program with two players ranked in the top 10 in the state in scoring. Both of those players were named All-Citrus Conference performers on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Freshman guards Eric Dailey and Isaiah McCray were each recognized as second-team honorees. In the ninth and final season under Head Coach Brandon Giles, Dailey and McCray became the 29th and 30th All-Conference honorees of his tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A local 6-foot-3 product from Winter Haven High School, Dailey led Polk State and ranked eighth in the FCSAA, averaging 17.1 points per game. During the 2025-26 season, Dailey hit or eclipsed the 20-point mark nine times, which included a career-high 31 points against IMG<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Academy on Nov. 9. Dailey shot 42% from the field, 36% from deep and 80% from the free- throw line as a freshman. He also averaged 3.4 rebounds and ranked second on the team in assists (3.0) and steals (1.4) per contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEric is one of the most athletically gifted players I\u2019ve had the pleasure of coaching,\u201d Giles said. \u201cHe has room for growth, incredible potential and a very promising future ahead of him. I expect more individual accolades as he continues his career as a student-athlete.\u201d A native of Ohio, Isaiah McCray established himself as one of the best shooters in the FCSAA as a freshman, ranking fourth in both 3-point percentage (.405) and free-throw percentage (.815). McCray also ranked 10th in the FCSAA in scoring, averaging 15.9 points per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCray scored in double figures in each of his first 13 collegiate games, including a career-high 31 points against Florida State College at Jacksonville on Jan. 10. McCray ranked fifth in the FCSAA and led the Eagles with 75 made 3-pointers. \u201cIt\u2019s been a true joy to see how Isaiah has matured after moving to a new state and playing at the college level for the first time,\u201d Giles added. \u201cHe\u2019s a great player and person with tremendous upside and an all-around game that translates well as he progresses to higher levels of college basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recognitions of Dailey and McCray mark the first time that Polk State has had multiple freshmen earn All-Conference honors since the 2019-20 season. The Eagles finished with a 5- 24 record this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polk State Basketball ended the regular season as the only FCSAA Division I program with two players ranked in the top 10 in the state in scoring. Both of those… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"20","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL0FsbF9Db25mZXJlbmNlXzIwMjUtMjZQb2xrSG9vcHMud2VicD9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzU3NiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlBvbGsgU3RhdGUgQmFza2V0YmFsbFx1MjAxOXMgRGFpbGV5LCBNY0NyYXkgZWFybiBBbGwtQ29uZmVyZW5jZSBob25vcnMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.k1igkn_iBbI8wtA1yUCLxe0U2cfwm4FPuLtnUB2KMOkMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[13953,13952],"class_list":["post-63423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seu-sports","tag-mccray-earn-all-conference-honors","tag-polk-state-basketballs-dailey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63425,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63423\/revisions\/63425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}