Titans men's basketball team wins again, sets up showdown with Northwest Florida State

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team jumped out to an early lead and held on to defeat Florida Southwestern 85-80 Saturday in the Florida JUCO Shootout at Santa Fe.

The 12th-ranked Titans, who are now 11-1 on the season, shot 59 percent from the floor in the first half and headed into the locker room with a 14-point lead. Florida Southwestern would cut into that lead and actually had the lead with 3:34 remaining, but the Titans made sure the win didn't slip away, setting up a showdown with No. 4 Northwest Florida State College at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Kareem Brewton led the Titans with 21 points while Ahmed Ali had 18 points and seven assists. Teammate Joan Duran had 17 points and six rebounds and Austin Awad finished with 15 points.

"Really proud of Team 7 tonight!" Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman said. "Our guys really came to play, we built an 18-point lead in the second half and kind of let things slip away but showed great resiliency at the end and found a way to win. We did not play our best but our effort and tenacity was there. Proud of our guys."

Following Sunday's matchup with Northwest Florida State the Titans will be off for the Christmas holiday. The Titans will host the Josh Artis Memorial Crowne Plaza Classic Dec. 29-31 at Titan Field House on the Melbourne campus.