Men's basketball team falls short in state semifinals

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team led one of the top teams in the country for 30 minutes Friday night in the FCSAA State Tournament Semifinals in Niceville, Florida.

But with 10 minutes remaining, ninth-ranked Chipola College took the lead for the first time and went on to post the 70-61 victory to advance to the championship game Saturday night against Indian River State College.

The Titans, who finish the tournament in the semifinals for the third straight season, got things started early using an aggressive defense with some strong shooting and led 7-0 and led for 19:20 of the first half with the other 40 seconds being tied.

Sophomore Nick Alves scored 16 of his game-high 28 points in the first half as the Titans went into halftime with a 28-23 lead. 

The battle of the top two defensive teams in the state continued for much of the second half and the Titans got the to nine points with 12:08 remaining but Chipola responded with a 9-0 run to tie the game 41-41.

Christyon Eugene gave the Titans the lead back with a layup but with 9:03 remaining in the game, Chipola took the lead on a layup from Lance Erving that gave them the lead for good.

Chipola made more free throws than the Titans attempted, most coming down the stretch as the Indians went 22-for-26 in the second half from the free throw line.

Vad Salaridze and Eugene each had nine points while Markus Harding finished with seven points.

The Titans are now 18-5 on the season.