Price comes up big in men's basketball team's win

Sophomore Kaleb Price made sure the Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team hung on for the win at the Josh Artis Memorial Classic Sunday evening at Titan Field House on the Melbourne campus.

With the Titans hanging onto a one-point lead with 35 seconds remaining, Price grabbed the rebound and was fouled. The Melbourne native stepped up to the free throw line and hit both shots and the Titans walked away with the 66-63 win.

The Titans jumped out to an early lead behind another Melbourne player as Chris Roth had all 17 of his points in the first eight minutes of the game, his fifth 3-pointer giving the Titans a 24-14 lead with 12 minutes left in the first half.

Eastern Florida State College would extend the lead to 40-27 at halftime.

Palm Beach State College came out in the second half and forced turnovers, cutting the lead to eight points in the first five minutes.

But freshman Brian Dugazon scored 14 of his team-high 24 points down the stretch to keep the Titans in the lead.

Palm Beach State College made one final run in the final two minutes to cut the lead to one, but missed the shot and Price grabbed the rebound and the win.

"I am just so incredibly proud of our guys. They are facing so much adversity and Kaleb (Price) in particular stepped up so big tonight," Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman said. "He's an amazing kid with incredible character, and I'm so proud of him! I'm proud of all of the guys. An amazing win."

The Titans improved to 11-6 overall and have won nine of the last 10 games. They will open the Mid-Florida Conference regular season at 4 p.m. Saturday at home against the Florida State College of Jacksonville.

In the first game of the day Sunday the State College of Florida Manatee defeated Coastal Alabama-North 108-85.

The Manatees overcame an early run by Coastal Alabama-North and led by 15 at halftime and went on to post the 23-point win.

Sophomore D'Moi Hodge finished with 23 points while Isiah Dasher had 19 for SCF-Manatee who improved to 14-4 on the season.

Central Alabama-North's Shamon Mosley finished with a game-high 32 points in the loss.