DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team stayed unbeaten on Wednesday night, opening up Sunshine State Conference play with a 106-95 win over 18th-ranked Florida Southern in the ICI Center. The Eagles (6-0, 1-0 SSC) got a career game from their lone senior, Luka Majstorovic as the big man went for a career-high 31 points with 10 rebounds, six blocks and two steals to lead ERAU over a Mocs (3-1, 0-1 SSC) squad that had won five straight against the Blue and Gold coming into the contest. The Eagles matched a program record with their fourth-straight 100-point offensive output, with a huge chunk of those points coming via second chance opportunities...ERAU outscored the Mocs, 36-9 in second chance points.

Majstorovic's double-double was the 11th of his Eagle career, and he was joined in double-figures by Elijah Jenkins, Romeo Crouch and Chris Murray. Jenkins went for 23 points on the back of seven three-pointers, while Crouch finished with 15 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals, and Murray had 11 points, nine rebounds and a career-high six helpers.

The Eagles made a statement early, going up 8-0 before FSC even reached the scoreboard, and the hosts held a comfortable lead for most of the opening 10 minutes, going up 28-14 on a Majstorovic jumper in the paint with 10:55 to play in the first.

A Jenkins three at the 8:22 mark pushed the Eagle lead to 36-20 and then Nick Heard provided a big spark off the bench, getting back-to-back tip-in scores off Eagle misses, including a monstrous tip-dunk with 6:20 to play that gave ERAU its biggest lead of the night at 40-23.

FSC answered with a 13-2 run to trim the Eagle lead to six with just under four minutes left in the period, and with 99 seconds to go in the half, Jack Rauch made a pair of free throws to cut the deficit down to 45-40. But a Majstorovic layup and then a big stop by the Eagles on the defensive end led to a Crouch triple to push the lead back to double-digits and Crouch made two freebies with two seconds left to account for the 53-40 Eagle lead at the half.

Coming out of the break Jenkins hit a three to start the second half scoring, and ERAU kept the Mocs at arms-length for the first few minutes of the half with a David Park trey at the 12-minute mark making it 76-64. However, the Mocs started to chip away, outscoring the home team 10-4 over the next couple of minutes, getting to within 80-74 when Jenkins nailed a big three to stop the run momentarily.

Brett Hanson scored two of his 19 points on the next FSC possession, and ERAU suddenly went cold from the floor, watching its nine-point lead slip to just a two-point cushion after a Jair Rodgers three with 6:10 on the clock.

The next Eagle possession was critical and Majstorovic came through for the Blue and Gold, grabbing an offensive board and sticking the ball back up and in to make it a two-possession lead. A couple of stops for both teams was followed by a Tylin Lockett-Fuller layup, and the Eagles again got a stop before Majstorovic got a feed from Crouch and made a hook shot in the paint, pushing the lead to 93-85 with four minutes to play.

The nail in the coffin came with 2:44 to go as Jenkins hit his seventh and final three-pointer of the game to make it 98-87 and Dru Nickson and Park finished out the final 60 seconds a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw line as the Eagles celebrated their first upset of a ranked team since the 2017-18 season.

The Eagles owned the boards, ending the night with a 53-39 advantage on the glass, including 21 offensive rebounds. ERAU also got big bench minutes from several Eagles, including an eight-point, seven-rebound, four-assist night for Lockett-Fuller as the Eagle bench outscored the Mocs, 24-9.

"We are incredibly proud of our basketball team this evening," Head Coach Steve Ridder said. "We beat a quality team in Florida Southern, and this win is big for our guys to realize how good they can be. We've got a lot of room to grow and improve, but this was a really nice step in that direction. We had some guys' leadership really show through tonight, led by our senior Luka...he took over the game at points. Our ability to get stops and not panic was so important to get this win."

The Eagles will host Lynn on Saturday, Nov. 23 with tip set for 6 p.m. in the ICI Center.