Men's basketball team advances to semifinals with win over Hillsborough CC

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the FCSAA Men's Basketball Championship Wednesday evening at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville.

The Titans, who are the No. 1 seed in the tournament, defeated Hillsborough Community College 83-53 in the quarterfinals.

"So proud of our guys, an unbelievable effort against a good team," Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman said. "To hold that high-scoring team to 53 points, I am really proud of our defensive effort and we will enjoy tonight and move forward tomorrow looking forward to the semifinals."

Down four with 13 minutes left in the first half, the Titans went on a 12-0 run to take a 23-15 lead. It was the first of several runs for the Titans as they would extend the lead 15 points at halftime.

Up 41-26 to start the second half, Matija Zuzic continued his sharp shooting, hitting 6-of-9 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 20 points. It is the third time that Zuzic has hit at least six 3-pointers this season.

The lead would reach 30 on an Ollie Pasque layup.

Owen Aquino finished with 11 points and nine assists while Afan Trnka and Emondrek Erkins-Ford each had nine points. Andrija Bukumirovic had 10 rebounds and Luca Colceag had nine rebounds in the game.

The men's basketball team are in the semifinals for the second straight year and fifth time in the past six years. The Titans will play No. 4 Northwest Florida State College in the semifinals on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. EDT in Niceville. Northwest Florida State College edged Florida Southwestern State College 66-65 in the quarterfinals.