Florida Memorial Men's Basketball team used a big first half of precision shooting to defeat the University of the Virgin Islands 105-69 to close out its 2016-2017 non-conference play. With their second straight win, the Lions improve to 7-4 overall.
 
Florida Memorial's Charlie Nedd-Araujo scored a career-high 24 points, knocking down 8-of-12 of his attempts, while going 4-7 from the three point line.
 
In the first half, the Lions quickly jumped out the gates against Virgin Islands with a pair of baskets and then went on a 27-2 run to put the Lions on top, 45-17, at the 2:45 mark. Virgin Islands was held scoreless for six minutes before they made a basket. The teams went into the locker room with Florida Memorial up by 33 points, 57-24.
Coming out of the break, the Lions continued to pour on the offense at the start of the second half.  With 4:10 left on the clock, they were leading by 45 points (99-54).  The team shot 41 percent from the field in the second half, as opposed to 58 percent in the first.  The Lions also shot 66 percent from beyond the arc and 19-of-24 from the charity stripe.  Florida Memorial out shot Virgin Islands, registering 51.4 percent from the field while Virgin Islands was 39 percent.  The Lions also out-rebounded their opponent by a 52-30 margin.  

Charlie Nedd-Araujo led the Lions with 24 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assist. Aaron Bryant and Andre Braziel chipped in 16 points each, while Kody Williams had 15 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assist and 1 steal. Also, Jaelyn Johnson-Coston had 14 points and Davon Williams came off the bench to add 13 points.

Florida Memorial Lions will host Ave Maria on January 5, 2017 with tip-off at 7 p.m.