Men's basketball team falls in semifinals, play for third place Saturday night

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team lost in the semifinals of the NJCAA National Championship Tournament Friday night in Hutchinson, Kansas.

The Titans fell to South Plains College 89-76 in the first semifinal of the tournament.

South Plains jumped out to an early 13-point lead in the first 10 minutes of the game but the Titans stormed back to tie the game on a Nathanael Jack 3-pointer with just under six minutes to go. But South Plains responded and took a seven-point lead into halftime.

The lead grew throughout the second half for South Plains as the lead reached 17 late in the second half.

"Really proud of my kids, really proud of them and that is the main thing. This really hurts, but there's losing and getting beat. And they both hurt but we didn't lose, we got beat," Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman said. "We played as hard as we possibly could and we left our hearts and souls on the court. We did not lose, we got beat."

The Titans were led by sophomore Eli Abaev who had 20 points and 15 rebounds while Jalen Warren finished with 13 points and 10 assists. Michael Nuga had 15 for the Titans who are 29-5 on the season.

Eastern Florida State College will play in the third-place game at 6 p.m. EDT against the loser of the second semifinal.