By TRAVIS MEWHIRTER

NICEVILLE — Northwest Florida State men's basketball coach Steve DeMeo wants everything to be fast.

From the northern rapid-fire cadence in which he speaks to the insistent "Go, go, go!" pleas he issues from the bench, the Raiders are expected to be in a constant blur of motion, trapping and fastbreaking, rebounding and outletting, and scoring, scoring, scoring.

It works, too. The Raiders ran up totals of 119 and 106 in their first two games and have blown out their first three opponents by margins of 69, 41 and 20.

Odd then, that the Raiders biggest advantage on Saturday night, hosting Eastern Florida State College, was when the game was at a standstill.

Thirty times they went to the free-throw line in the 89-81 win over the Titans, who took eight fewer trips to the stripe and made six fewer, a significant amount of points in a game this close.

"It's huge to get that," DeMeo said. "And we fouled some of their guys out so that was huge too. We wore 'em down."

The Raiders only made 20 of their 30 freebies. DeMeo acknowledged this: "That's not what we want. No, that's not great."

But getting to the freethrow line holds more value than a few points on the scoreboard.

Eastern Florida State starting guard Payton Hulsey fouled out, along with fellow starter Kyle Meyer, a 6-foot-10 forward out of Georgia.

Couple that with the three fouls apiece saddling Djordje Beronja, Terrell Miller, Demetrius McReynolds and Marcus Barham, and few of the Titans with any significant playing time could play defense as aggressively as they otherwise would have.

"We had them in foul trouble early," said 6-foot-7 sophomore Jordan Capps, who finished with 11 points and made four trips to the line. "Jalen (Jackson) was being aggressive. They're really free points, so the more free points the better."

When a team scores 88 points, however, there is much more work being done than that at the foul line.

DeMeo tapped an index finger on the bottom line detailing his Raiders' assist total, 22, and nodded, pleased with the all-around altruistic effort, led by the nine dished out from Benji Bell.

"That's incredible," DeMeo said. "Twenty-two assists, I mean, that's incredible."

The result was five players in double-figures, with Jackson leading the way with 20 points.

Brandon Austin added 14, Xavier Moon 13, Treshaad Williams 12 and Capps 11.

All that, and it was still the first game of the season in which NWF State didn't win by double-digits.

But, as Capps said, it also was the toughest opponent, although Friday night's win over Lurleen B. Wallace Community College looks much better after the Saints topped perennial power Chipola on a buzzer beater.

"That's by far the best team we've had," Capps said. "That was the best by far; they've got a lot of strength."