TAKOMA PARK, Md. --- The Ave Maria men's basketball team fell on the road on Wednesday night at Washington Adventist, 73-69. The Gyrenes move to 6-2 on the season. AMU returns to action this weekend with a pair of exhibition matches at Florida International on Friday and at Lynn on Sunday.
 
Gianpaolo Riccio led Ave Maria with 26 points on 9-of-18 shooting including 8-of-15 from three. Leo Behrend added 17 points while Nemanja Brankov also scored in double-figures with 11 points.
 
Therence Marimba had a game-high 42 point for Washington Adventist. WAU shot 50.9 percent from the field while the Gyrenes finished shooting at a 42.9 percent clip.  Washington Adventist held a five-point edge, 16-11, in points off turnovers and a 34-28 advantage in points in the paint. Turnovers were nearly even, with WAU holding a 17-16 advantage.
 
Ave Maria came out and made four of their first six shots, including two threes and an and-one, to jump out to a 10-6 lead. Washington Adventist took the lead a few minutes later an quickly extended their advantage to six, 19-13.
 
After the WAU lead grew to 10, 38-28, Ave Maria finished the half with a pair of threes by Riccio to cut the deficit to four, 38-34.
 
Several minutes into the second half, AMU tied the game at 46 and took their first lead since 15:06 in the first half when Romello Bates made a layup with 13:20 to play. The game went back-and-forth over the next several minutes and remained tied at 65 after a Behrend layup with 2:48 remaining in the game.
 
Back-to-back jumpers b Mayimba gave WAU a four-point lead with 1:46 to play. A minute later, a Riccio layup with 44 seconds to play made it a 71-69 game. The Gyrenes got a turnover with 11 seconds to play but a late AMU turnover gave the ball back to WAU. Washington Adventist's Charles Vines made both free throws to extend their lead back to four with four seconds to play. An AMU three at the buzzer was off the mark as WAU defeated AMU 73-69.