DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. --- The Ave Maria women's basketball team was defeated by conference opponent Embry-Riddle University 51-71. The Gyrenes fall to 1-3 in the Sun Conference and 9-6 overall.

The Blue and Green will return to the court on Tuesday, January 13 in Clearwater where they will play Clearwater Christian College.

Taylor Lindsey scored 10 points and had two blocks. Yvanessa Vincent had a strong overall game scoring seven points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Annie Artise also had a strong defensive game tearing down nine defensive rebounds (11 overall rebounds).

The Eagles did most of their damage on the inside in the first half.  ERAU was 0-8 from long range but knocked down 15 of their 23 attempts inside the arc. AMU struggled, shooting only 30% from the field.
 
A short jumper in the paint keyed a 6-1 run that extended the Eagle lead to seven (18-11) with 11:18 left in the half. Both sides traded baskets over the next three minutes, and a layup and a jumper gave the Eagles their first double-digit lead (25-15) of the half, prompting Coach Batson to call a timeout. The Lady Gyrenes drew up a play that led to a Lauren Gillingham jumper and made it an eight-point (25-17) game, but that was as close as AMU would get as the Eagles closed out the half by outscoring the visitors 12-8 to take a 37-25 lead into the intermission.

Coming out of the break, the Eagles continued to pour on the offense, while the defense forced five turnovers and limited the Lady Gyrenes to just four made shots in the first 8:20 of the half. That combination gave the Eagles a 22–point cushion with 11:40 remaining, marking their largest lead of the game.

Back-to-back threes by Kimberly Tricker and Ashlee Rioux, sparked a 13-2 AMU run that closed the gap to 11 points (59-48) with 4:27 left to play. The Eagles went on a 12-3 run in the final 3:56 to seal the win and held AMU to their second lowest scoring total of the season.

The Blue and Green shot 29.5% from the field and 33% from behind the arc.