Men's basketball team holds on for win, honors sophomores

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball held off the Florida State College at Jacksonville Monday night to wrap up the Central Conference season with a 14-2 record.

Sophomore Nick Alves wrapped up the win with a steal at half court with three seconds left to seal the 81-80 victory over the Blue Wave.

The Titans came out firing, putting up its best half of basketball this season, scoring 58 points in the first half to hold a 12-point lead at halftime.

The Blue Wave opened with a 10-0 run to cut the lead to two points, 58-56 before a Titans timeout. Nick Alves would hit a 3-pointer and then hit a second one a minute and a half later to give the Titans a 64-58 leader and cause FSC-Jacksonville to call timeout.

The Titans would get the lead back to 12 points on a Christyon Eugene basket with 3:12 left but the Blue Wave would go on a 13-3 run to cut the Titans lead to 79-77 with 19.4 seconds remaining.

Alves would hit two big free throws to make it 81-77 with 13.4 seconds left. FSC-Jacksonville's G'Shan Aldridge would hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 81-80. But after a couple of missed free throws, Alves made sure the Blue Wave would not get a chance for the win.

Alves finished with 29 points while Brody Boyer had 13, Lovre Zaja finished with 11 and Christyon Eugene had 10 points in the win.

After the game, Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman honored his seven sophomores.

The Titans, who are now 16-4 on the season and have locked up a spot in the state tournament next week, will play Central Pointe Academy Wednesday night at 8 p.m. at Titan Field House.