BRUNSWICK, Ga. --- The Ave Maria women's basketball team dropped an 81-73 decision at Coastal Georgia on Thursday night. The loss drops the Gyrenes to 13-3 on the season and to 4-2 in Sun Conference play.
 
Sarah Miller led the Gyrenes with 16 points and 16 rebounds. She was 8-for-11 from the field. Katie Houbolt finished with 14 points with four made threes while Danielle Weinmann added 12 points.
 
As a team, the Gyrenes shot 42 percent from the field and 30 percent from three. AMU was 11-of-14 from the charity stripe.
 
Coastal Georgia shot nearly 52 percent from the field and were 21-of-34 from the free throw line. The Mariners were led by Brianna Gipson and Ayshia Baker who finished with 18 and 23 points, respectively.
 
The Gyrenes got off to a slow start which allowed Coastal Georgia to jump out to a 13-4 lead. AMU was able to cut the deficit to five, 17-12, after a quarter of play. Early in the second quarter, Houbolt hit a three to bring AMU within two. Midway through the second quarter, Weinmann made a jumper to give AMU its first lead of the game 23-22. Ave Maria led Coastal Georgia 37-35 after the Mariners hit a shot as time expired to cut the deficit to two.
 
The two teams went back and forth in the third quarter with neither team able to build a lead of more than three. Coastal Georgia hit seven of their first ten shots from the field to start the fourth quarter to quickly take a 69-57 lead on the Gyrenes. AMU cut the deficit to single digits on multiple occasions but weren't able to pull closer than seven.  
 
The Gyrenes return to action on Saturday when they take on Thomas in Thomasville, Ga. The game is set to tip at 2 p.m.