Men's basketball team faces St. Petersburg in state tournament quarterfinals

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team will open the FCSAA State Tournament tonight at 9 p.m. EST as the No. 4 seed.

The Titans, who come into the contest as the Central Conference champions at 17-4, will face No. 5 seed St. Petersburg College in the quarterfinals.

The Titans come into the tournament as one of the hottest teams, winning the past six games and have beaten St. Petersburg in two of the three meetings this season.

Sophomore Nick Alves is averaging 22.6 points per game in the past five games and is coming off his best scoring game of the season, scoring 29 points against the Florida State College of Jacksonville. The all-Central Conference first team and all-state selection leads the Titans, averaging 13.2 points per game this season.

Teammate and sophomore Christyon Eugene had one of his biggest games of the season against St. Petersburg earlier this season, scoring 21 points and averaged 14 points per game against St. Petersburg. The first team all-Central Conference guard has scored 10 or more in eight of the last nine games for the Titans.

Defensively, the Titans are one of the best in the state of Florida allowing opponents to score an average of 63.3 points per game, second in Region VIII to Chipola College. St. Petersburg College is third, allowing 64.4 points per game.

This will be the first meeting between St. Petersburg and EFSC in the state tournament since the 2017 championship game which St. Petersburg won.