Men's basketball team punches ticket to state tournament with win

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team punched their ticket to the FCSAA State Tournament Tuesday night with a 65-56 win over Santa Fe at Titan Field House.

The Titans improved to 21-10 on the season and will play Indian River State College in the first round of the state tournament March 4 at 8 p.m. at Nortwhest Florida State College in Niceville, Florida.

Leading by three points halfway through the first half, the Titans finished the first half on a 15-2 run to head into halftime with a 31-15 lead.

And it looked like Eastern Florida State College would pull away as they came out of the locker room on a 9-0 run to lead by 25 points, 41-15. But Santa Fe wasn't finished and went on an 18-2 run to cut the Titans lead to 42-33 before a couple of Johnny Bernard baskets ended the run.

But Santa Fe kept the pressure on and with 4:41 left in the contest they were within four points. But Bernard and Nick Alves combined for 11 points in the final four minutes to send the Titans to the state tournament.

Brian Dugazon finished with 14 points while Bernard had 13 and Jonathan Ned scored 10 points in the win.