MELBOURNE, Fla. – Santa Fe College men's basketball was downed by No. 24 Eastern Florida State College on Saturday afternoon, 86-79 inside the Titan Field House.

Although the Titans led wire-to-wire in this one, the Saints never went away and put themselves in contention down the stretch.

HOW IT HAPPENED

A 15-3 run from the hosts opened up the game's largest deficit for the Saints, 30-16 with 7:46 on the clock.

SF did well to collect itself and respond, however, spearheaded by the three-point shooting of Nigel Martin. Martin had three first half triples, and the Saints were able to chip into the gap.

The halftime lead for Eastern Florida was just six, 42-36, after a bucket inside from Kordell Brown in the final seconds.

The Saints started the second half well and quickly made it a single possession game with five straight points, whittling the Titans' lead to just one, 42-41, with two free-throws from Brown and a Cole Deptula splashdown from deep.

It became the story of the game, however, that SF could never get quite over the hump to establish a lead. The Titans seemed to always have a response and opened up a lead that swelled right back to as large as 11, 71-60, as the clock went under eight minutes to play.

SF pushed the Titans to the brink down the stretch, and Brown sunk a deep three-pointer in rhythm with a little over a minute to play to cut the deficit to just two, 81-79.

Eastern Florida's Caleb Byrd scored a tough basket late in the shot clock on the ensuing possession and Santa Fe's offense then missed a triple-try, forcing the Saints to begin fouling.

Byrd iced the win with three more free-throws down the stretch, and Eastern Florida held on for the second win over the Saints this season.

UPDATED RECORDS

Santa Fe – 12-9, 4-3 Central

No. 24 Eastern Florida – 17-5, 7-0 Central

KEY STATISTICS

Caleb Byrd (26 points) and Andres Burney (23 points) were the two primary culprits for the Saints' frustrations.

The Titans shot an efficient 47 percent from the field, compared to 42.2 percent from the Saints.

The Saints made 12 three-pointers, led by a season-high five from Martin.

Martin's 22 points was a new season-high, and Brown went 8-of-11 and 3-of-4 from three-point territory for 22 points of his own. He added nine rebounds.

Jalen Speer had 13 points and nine assists, Nasir Mann contributed nine points and nine rebounds, and Nikolaos Noumeros tallied six points and ten rebounds.

UP NEXT

The Saints (12-9, 4-3 Central) will host St. Petersburg (4-18, 0-7 Central) on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m.