Men's basketball team hits road for a couple of big games

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team is preparing for a big weekend of basketball at the 16^th annual Florida College Men's Basketball Shootout in Gainesville.

The Titans head into the weekend 11-1 on the season and have won 10 straight games. The No. 7 team in the latest NJCAA Division I poll, Eastern Florida State College will play two top 25 teams beginning Saturday with a showdown against No. 10 Florida Southwestern. Then on Sunday the Titans will play No. 22 Chipola.

"What an unbelievable opportunity for our guys this weekend, Florida Southwestern and Chipola are two of the best in the country and we will be tested heavily in both games," Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Jeremy Shulman said. "It's an amazing event that is put on every year in Florida. Hopefully it will help get us ready for the conference season because our conference is loaded."

The Titans have scored over 110 points in four games this season and sophomore Ahmed Ali has led the offensive attack, averaging 20.4 points per game which is tops in Region 8.

Eastern Florida State College joins the Mid-Florida Conference this season with Daytona State, College of Central Florida, Santa Fe and FSC-Jacksonville and Shulman hopes this weekend will help the team get ready for a challenging conference season.

"Hopefully these two games will prepare us for those challenges," Shulman said. "I love where we are at but we have a long ways to go. I guess on an optimistic side, it shows that we can be really good. We are not there yet and we don't want to peak in December but we have a long ways to go and this team has a lot of upside."

The Titans return to Titan Field House Dec. 29-30 for the Josh Artis Classic, facing Baltimore City Community College on Dec. 29 at 5 p.m. and then No. 14 Shelton State Saturday at 2 p.m.