Men's basketball team edges Broward College in conference opener

With just 30 seconds remaining in a tie game on the road, Ahmed Ali found Kareem Brewton who was cutting to the basket for a thunderous dunk.

Brewton went on to score the final seven points to lift the No. 7 Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team to a 91-90 victory over Broward College in a Southern Conference game.

"Coach told us to just execute the play, I knew I had the back door and I just had to dunk it, I knew it would get the team hyped," Brewton said. "I work on free throws every day, we have to hit 10 in a row to leave practice every day, so I knew I could hit them."

Broward College came out shooting, taking the early lead behind Jayvian Delacruz who had the team's first 17 points and finished with a game-high 35. But the Titans battled back and took the lead midway through the first half.

Eastern Florida State College would hold the lead until the final couple of minutes of the contest. Down the stretch neither team could gain an advantage and after Brewton's dunk, Jaron Cornish hit a 3-pointer to give Broward a lead. But Ali ran the same play and once again Brewton was open and hit the layup and got fouled. He hit the free throw and two more in the final seconds but Cornish would hit one final 3-pointer at the buzzer.

""We found a way. Not sure what else to say. My hat goes off to Broward and Coach (Bob) Starkman for an unbelievable effort tonight. They are a great team and very well coached," Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman said. "We were not very good tonight, and we did not focus on our process. Our process guides us daily and makes us who we are. It makes us team seven. We have to get back to focusing on the process."

Ali finished the game with 22 points while Brewton scored 21 in the game.

Eastern Florida State College improved to 15-1 overall and 1-0 in the conference and will host Palm Beach State College at 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Admission is free to the contest.