Men's basketball team faces Trinity Valley in second round of tourney

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team got a chance to see their first opponent in the NJCAA National Championship Tournament and they put on a show.

The Titans, who are the No. 8 seed at 27-4, will face No. 9 seed Trinity Valley who opened the tournament Monday afternoon with a 100-54 win over No. 24 Baltimore City.

"They are really good, they are one of the top teams in the country for a reason, they are well coached, absolutely huge inside and have one of the top guards in the country in Wendell Mitchell," Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman said.

Wendell Mitchell led the Cardinals attack, scoring 24 points in 21 minutes against Baltimore City. Mitchell leads the team in scoring, averaging 19.8 points per game for the Cardinals who have scored over 100 points seven times this season.

"They are one of the best teams in Texas and we are going to have to play our tails off to accomplish what we want to accomplish tomorrow," Shulman said. "Honestly against a team like this, we are going to have to do just about everything well. We are going to have to play hard, be very tough, play together, rebound, defend and make some shots."

Eastern Florida State College is back in Hutchinson, Kansas after making it to the championship game last season and is led by sophomore Ahmed Ali who is averaging 18.4 points per game while teammate Michael Nuga comes in averaging 14.3 points per game.

"I think the guys are absolutely ready to play and perform, we are ready for tomorrow," Shulman said.

Tipoff for the second-round matchup is at 5:30 p.m. EST and can be seen on NJCAATV.org for $4.99. Follow @efsctitans on Twitter for updates throughout the NJCAA National Tournament.