The Florida State College at Jacksonville men's basketball team (10-4) hosted the nationally ranked number 19th Eastern Florida State College Titans (12-2) from Melbourne, Florida on Wednesday afternoon in both teams' first game back from the winter break.
Eastern Florida State is ranked as the number one defensive team in the country in all of junior college, leading the nation in both fewest opponent points per game and defensive efficiency. FSCJ was prepped and ready and jumped on the Titans early. FSCJ scored 46 points in the first half and led by 20 at the break. A 3-pointer out of half by sophomore guard Tarence Guinard stretched the lead to 23.
Ice cold shooting from FSCJ and the size and physicality of the Titans saw the big early second half advantage fade away, and both teams were knotted up at 62-62 with under 8 minutes to play. Eastern Florida State began to pull away late, but FSCJ continued to battle to make it a 1-possession game after an and-1 layup and free throw by freshman guard Alex McCray for the 3-point play. It wasn't enough as the Titans came out on top with an 80-76 victory.
"Eastern Florida is one of the most talented and best coached teams in the entire country," said Head Coach John Putyrski after the game. "It was a tale of two halves. We were unrecognizable from the first half, and so were they. We were still getting good looks in our offense versus them, but went cold. That happens on occasion and is when we have to be able to rely on our defense and effort."
The 76 points scored by FSCJ was the most Eastern Florida State had allowed to any opponent all season. "We know how good they are defensively, but we now know how good we can be offensively when we play with speed and aggressiveness," said Guinyard. "We showed that today, but we can't stop applying pressure just because we have a lead. It killed us tonight in a game we all really wanted."
FSCJ begins a challenging stretch of three straight road games when they travel to the Carolinas this weekend for two games versus Cleveland Community College and Spartanburg Methodist College. To stay up to date with all the happenings on your FSCJ BlueWave and more exclusive content, follow us on Instagram and X @FSCJMBB.