BRUNSWICK, Ga.- The Ave Maria University women's basketball team suffered their first loss of the 2019-20 season on Saturday afternoon, a 68-54 defeat at the hands of the Mariners of the College of Coastal Georgia. Program history was made in the losing effort, as Sarah Miller became the all-time leading rebounder at Ave Maria with her 1100th rebound.

Coastal Georgia outscored the Gyrenes in all four quarters of the day, beginning with an 18-13 edge in the first. The Mariners led by as many as eight points in the opening ten minutes, holding a 16-8 lead with 2:28 to play. AMU was able to cut the Coastal Georgia lead to three points with five unanswered, but two CCGA free throws with 28 seconds left accounted for the five-point lead.

Ave Maria rallied to tie the game in the second quarter, as an 8-1 run allowed the Gyrenes to even the score at 23. Coastal Georgia was able to widen their lead to seven points by the end of the quarter, with the final four points of the quarter scored by Ariel Crump and Lysney Washington. The Mariners took a 37-30 lead into the halftime break.

The Gyrenes continued to hang around in the third quarter, as a 7-0 run cut Coastal Georgia's lead from 42-32 with 7:11 to go to 42-39 with 5:47 on the clock. The Mariners' Solrun Gisladottir hit a three-pointer with under a minute to play in the quarter to give Coastal Georgia a 52-44 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

AMU cut the Coastal Georgia lead to five points early in the fourth quarter, but the Mariners closed the game on a 16-7 run to pull away from the Gyrenes. Ave Maria did not make a field goal in the final 4:42 of the contest, as a jumper from Miller with just under five minutes to play proved to be the final shot from the field for the Gyrenes.

With 14 rebounds in the losing effort, Miller became Ave Maria's all-time leading rebounder, breaking a seven-year old record set by Amy Myler, who pulled down 1095 rebounds in her career. Miller also scored 17 points to lead the way for the Gyrenes, while Danielle Weinmann added 14 points. Three Mariners were in double figures, with Gisladottir scoring 19 points, Washington adding 15, and Quira Porter chipping in eleven.

Ave Maria will play two games at the Southeastern Thanksgiving Classic next week in Lakeland. The first game will come on Friday against Florida National University, with tipoff scheduled for 4:00 p.m. The second game will see the Gyrenes play Loyola University from Louisiana at the Furnace on the Southeastern University campus. That game is slated for a 2:00 p.m. start.