MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.- The Ave Maria University men's basketball team ended the 2019 regular season with a victory on Saturday evening, throttling the Florida Memorial University Lions 96-65 in Miami Gardens. The Gyrenes end the regular season with a 20-8 record, and a 13-5 mark in Sun Conference play. Ave Maria will be the number three seed in The Sun Conference Tournament, and will host St. Thomas on Tuesday night.

The Gyrenes used a 31-10 run in the first half to blow the game open early on Saturday evening. Ave Maria trailed for just 19 seconds during the contest, as the Lions scored the first points of the game on a Charlie Nedd-Araujo three-pointer. Ave Maria's game-defining run started when an FMU layup with 12:37 to play in the half, cutting the Gyrene lead to five points. From that point until the end of the half, AMU ballooned their lead to 26 points on two occasions, and took a 47-21 lead into halftime.

In the first half, the Gyrenes shot 64.3 percent from the field, and made seven of 13 three-point attempts to log a 53.8 long distance percentage. Leo Behrend led the way for Ave, hitting five of his six shots to post 12 points in the opening 20 minutes. Caelen Watts also scored double figure points in the first half, scoring ten points on just five shots. Including his game-opening three-pointer Nedd-Araujo was the leading scorer for Florida Memorial, recording eight points.

Saturday's second half was more closely contested, with the Gyrenes outscoring the Lions by just five points, 49-44. Both teams shot the ball well in the closing period, as AMU shot 56 percent from the field with a 58.3 three-point percentage and Florida Memorial recorded a 48.5 percent mark. Ave's lead never dipped below 20 points, and twice hit its apex of 31 points in the final two minutes of the contest.

Four Gyrenes posted at least ten points in the regular season finale, led by 21 points from Behrend, who also paced the team with eight rebounds. Gianpaolo Riccio added 19 points, while Romello Bates chipped in 16. Watts rounded out the group with 15 points. For the game, Ave Maria shot 60.4 percent from the field and 56 percent from beyond the three-point arc. Eugene Harvey was the leading scorer for the Lions, making eight of his eleven shots to log 20 points.

With the conference results on Saturday, Ave Maria will be the number three seed in The Sun Conference Tournament this coming week. The Gyrenes will host sixth-seeded St. Thomas University on Tuesday night at the Tom Golisano Field House as part of the school's first ever conference tournament doubleheader. 

The women's tournament game against Florida Memorial will tip off at 6:00 p.m., and the men's game against the Bobcats is scheduled for an 8:00 tip. The winner of the AMU-STU game will face second-seeded Southeastern, while No. 1 Warner, No. 4 Keiser, and No. 5 Coastal Georgia comprise the other half of the bracket. The semifinals and finals will be played Friday and Saturday in Lake Wales, on the campus of Warner University.