Men's basketball team defeats Daytona State College for conference win

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team withstood a hot-shooting Daytona State College team to post the conference win on the road Saturday.

Daytona State College came out hot, hitting seven 3-pointers in the first 8:29 of the game but the Titans stayed with them and came out with a run of their own in the second half to defeat the Falcons 74-62 in a Central Conference game.

Trailing most of the first half, Markus Harding came off the bench and provided a spark for the Titans. Harding scored on three straight trips down the court to give the Titans their first lead of the day with 4:35 left in the first half.

Brandon Garcia and Cameron Wickline would each hit 3-pointers down the stretch to give the Titans a 40-37 lead at halftime.

Eastern Florida State College came out of the locker room and went on a 10-2 run highlighted by Brody Boyer and Lovre Zaja 3-pointers to give the Titans a 10-point lead. Daytona State College would cut it to four with five minutes remaining, but Harding once again came up big, scoring a basket and getting the foul for the three-point play and then hit another free throw as the Titans would score the final eight points of the game. 

Harding finished with 16 points and five rebounds while teammate Justin Reid had 12 points and Lovre Zaja had a season-high 11 points in the win. Rron Ukaj grabbed nine rebounds including some big offensive rebounds in the first half for the Titans.

Eastern Florida State College improved to 12-5 overall and 2-1 in the Central Conference with the win. The Titans will travel to the Florida State College at Jacksonville for a conference game Monday night at 7:30 p.m. before returning to Titan Field House Wednesday night for a conference game against St. Petersburg.