Men's basketball team opens season with road win

The Eastern Florida State College men's basketball team picked up a win in the season opener at Indian River State College Friday evening.

The Titans went on a couple of big runs to defeat The River 97-80 in a non-conference match between the Citrus Conference foes.

"I am so excited for our guys to be able to start off the year with a win at a conference opponent. I loved the response from our guys on some of their runs and we did a lot of great things, it was a great start for us to the year and heading into Idaho," said Eastern Florida State College men's basketball coach Zach Ferrell who picked up his first win at Eastern Florida State College. "There were definitely some nerves today, I am excited but to be able to get that first win today feels great."

The Titans took the lead three minutes into the contest on back-to-back dunks from Lana Agbelese gave the Titans a 6-3 lead. It remained close until the final eight minutes of the contest when the Titans finished the half with an 18-0 run. Sean Register led the attack with 15 points in the first half.

"Sean is going to be a huge part of this team, he missed some of the preseason and I am thankful to have him back at full strength for the opener," Ferrell said. "He was great for us defensively, on the glass and scoring the ball, he is a huge asset."

Eastern Florida State College started the second half leading 45-24 but Indian River State College took advantage of the Titans slow start to cut the lead to 10, 49-39 in the first five minutes of the second half.

 Djiby Ly started the run for Eastern Florida State College with a 3-pointer, then Joviel Acevedo-Arroyo hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to 74-51. He would hit another 3-pointer later in the half and finished with 21 points.

"Joviel is in his third year with us, he has worked really hard and deserves this. He has had three coaches now in his three years and I am really proud of him," Ferrell said.

Register finished with team-high 23 points in the win while Ly had 22 and Tyson Wilson had 10 points.

Eastern Florida State College will go to Twin Falls, Idaho for the Battle of the Boot. The Titans will play McCook Community College on Thursday.