LAKELAND, Fla.- The Ave Maria University men's basketball team saw their run in The Sun Conference Tournament come to an end on Friday night, as the top-seeded Southeastern University Fire dispatched the fourth-seeded Gyrenes, 81-69. Friday night's game was the rubber match between the two teams, with the regular season series split 1-1.

With the exception of three one-point leads in the first three minutes of the game, Southeastern held the advantage for most of the first half. The Fire led by as many as eight points, holding a 30-22 lead with under five minutes to play in the opening frame. Ave Maria would be able to cut the Southeastern lead down to three in the final minute of the half, but layups from Devon Ford and Karl Jeanty extended the SEU lead to seven, 38-31, at halftime.

The hosts held the advantage in both shooting categories in the opening 20 minutes, shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point territory. The Gyrenes made 35.3 percent of their attempts from the field, and were successful on four of their 15 three-point attempts, good for a 26.7 percent mark. Leo Behrend led all scorers in the first half with eleven points, while Southeastern's Riley Minx was the leader for the Fire with ten.

Ave Maria led for the final time with 16 minutes on the clock, after a Marcus Montalvo three-pointer gave the Gyrenes a 44-43 lead. After a 7-0 run pushed the Fire back up by six points, the closest the Gyrenes could come was three. A layup from Behrend with less than five minutes remaining cut the SEU lead to 65-62, but the Fire would close the game on a 16-7 run to put away AMU and advance to the championship game of The Sun Conference Tournament.

In his final game as a Gyrene, Leo Behrend scored 23 points and pulled down a career-high 16 rebounds. Fernando Salsamendi added 17 points, while Lucas Uzdavinis scored ten points. As a team, the Gyrenes were hurt by an 8-for-33 mark from three-point territory, marking the team's lowest three-point percentage this season against a conference opponent. TSC Freshman of the Year Riley Minx was the leading scorer for the Fire, who will play St. Thomas on Saturday night for the tournament title. Minx scored 20 points to lead five double figure scorers for Southeastern.

AMU's 2019-20 season comes to a close with 20 wins, marking the first time in school history where the program has won that many games in consecutive seasons. Over a two-year period, the Gyrenes have won 30 games against conference opponents, easily the most in school history. Three seniors - Behrend, Greenan Sullivan, and Jeff Steel - depart having made indelible impacts on the program, including a conference title and a trip to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time.