Men's basketball team picks up win at Battle for the Boot

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team opened with a win at the Battle for the Boot tournament in Idaho Thursday afternoon.

The Titans, who are ranked 23^rd in the preseason national poll, defeated Western Wyoming 83-64 at the College of Southern Idaho. They advanced to the winner's bracket in the tournament and will play in the semifinals tomorrow night.

Corey Caulker had a big first half for Eastern Florida State College as they opened up a close game in the final seven minutes, outscoring Western Wyoming 8-0 in a minute and a half to pull away.

The Titans would lead by nine at halftime and led by 10 with 16:48 remaining after an Emondrek Erkins-Ford layup. But Western Wyoming would shoot their way back into the contest, trailing by one point with 12:35 remaining. Hanging onto the 52-51 lead, Gavin Murphy made two key 3-pointers and Felipe Patino's 3-pointer put the lead back to 10, 61-51 with 10:01 left.

From there the Titans would extend it to pick up their second straight win to open the season.

Erkins-Ford finished with a team-high 20 points while Caulker added 19 in the win. Fredy Salam-Sylla picked up his first double-double of the season, scoring 11 points and grabbing a team-leading 11 rebounds. Felipe Patino also had 11 points.

Gediminas Alisas had a double-double for Western Wyoming, scoring 20 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.