Men's basketball team opens conference season Saturday on the road

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team will open Central Conference play Saturday on the road.

The Titans, who have won at least a tie of the conference title the past 10 seasons, will travel to Polk State College for a 2 p.m. contest in Winter Haven.

Eastern Florida State College heads into the conference season 10-5 on the season and are coming off a victory at the Josh Artis Classic.

"We have been tested this season and we are still trying to get healthy, we have been missing three players and to find a way to win through that adversity, we had some guys step up and we really came together. Even the day before I thought we took some huge steps forward, but we need to get our guys back. It is very difficult without your top guys," Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman said. "I feel like we are heading in the right direction."

Polk State College comes into the contest 5-9 and is 2-1 at home this season. The Eagles lost a tight game with Florida Southwestern who is No. 25 in the latest NJCAA Division I poll last week and have been playing much better.

"Coach (Brandon) Giles has them playing really well right now, they are a talented team that has missed a lot of guys in the first semester," Shulman said. "It is a tough place to play, it's going to be an extremely difficult conference opener but that is on par with a lot of our conference games, we have more conference road games than home games this year and we will have to be ready to play on Saturday."

Saturday will be the first of 15 conference games for the Titans who will also battle Santa Fe, St. Petersburg, Daytona State College and the Florida State College at Jacksonville for the conference title.

"It's a really good conference full of great coaches, a physical brand of basketball, almost like the Big East. But at the same time, it doesn't get a lot of respect and it is going to be a battle every night," Shulman said. "Four of the first five games are on the road so we will be road warriors early and road games in this conference are really tough. It is going to be a great challenge for us and we will definitely know where we stand after this round. We have to be ready both mentally and physically every night."

Eastern Florida State College is led by guard Caleb Byrd who is averaging 24.1 points per game which is leading the state. Teammate Andres Burney is averaging 15.8 points and 9.6 rebounds per game this season. The 9.6 rebounds is the fourth-best in the state and Burney is shooting 62.3 percent from the floor which is fifth-best in the state. Overall, the Titans have four players averaging at least nine points per game.

The Titans will kick off the conference season with four of their first five games on the road. They will be home on Jan. 14 against No. 19 Daytona State College at 4 p.m.