WAXAHACHIE, Texas | No. 25 Florida Memorial's dream season comes to an end as they fall 91-76 to Evangel at the Sheaffer Center in the first round of the NAIA Men's Basketball National Tournament on the campus of Southwestern Assemblies of God University, eliminating them from the NAIA tournament.

FMU got behind 9-0 in the opening minutes of the contest and never recovered. At the break, the Lions trailed 51-34 and could not cut the deficit to single digits in the latter half.

As a team Florida Memorial shot less than 50 percent from the field (28-of-57) while their opponents shot 56 percent (36-of-64) from the floor.

The Lions were led by power forward Latavious Mitchell who finished with a team-high 17 points and six boards while fellow Lions Derrius Ward and Felix Uadiale produced 15 points apiece. Ward added eight boards and four assists while Uadiale finished with seven boards but had four turnovers in the loss.

FMU's bench produced 36 points compared to 26 points for the Valor's bench. Evangel kept the lead throughout the entire contest with 26 points off of 17 Lions' turnovers.

Florida Memorial outscored Evangel 42-40 in the second half, but couldn't overcome stellar shooting from the Valors, who connected on 12-of-24 three-pointers while the Lions hit just 4-of-15 from behind the arc.

The Lions finished the season 24-7 overall, 9-5 in conference play, and were crowned 2024 SUN Conference Men's Basketball Tournament Champions after defeating their crosstown rival St. Thomas 65-61 under the direction of first year head coach Delano Thomas, who recently won an NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship with Shawnee State.