LIVONIA, Mich. — The Ave Maria University men's basketball team dropped their first game of the season losing to the Madonna Crusaders 95-75. The Gyrenes trailed all game and just couldn't keep up with the high scoring Crusaders.

Both squads were pretty even to start off the first half, trading runs back and forth. Madonna would get up to a nine-point lead on Ave Maria, but then the Gyrenes would make a few buckets and get back to within two with the Crusaders. Unfortunately, in the last three minutes, Ave Maria went cold while the Crusaders went on an 11-2 run to take a 47-37 lead into the half.

Jonathan Effertz led the team in scoring for the first half, putting up 11 points and making two threes. The 6-1 freshman from Cleveland, Ohio, has been a big factor for the Gyrenes offense in the first three games of the season and is one of the top scorers on the team.

In the second half, the Crusaders picked up right where they left off and went on a 10-2 run in the first two and a half minutes. This kept Madonna out of the Gyrenes reach for the rest of the game and the Crusaders cruised through the second half, always leading by at least 12 points. The Gyrenes tried to comeback, but they couldn't string baskets together like the Crusaders were doing and ultimately ran out of time on a comeback.

Effertz was held scoreless in the final 20 minutes, and nine second-half points propelled Lucas Uzdavinis to team leader in points with 14. 12 of Uzdavinis' points came off the three-pointers extending his record to 227 threes in a career, 43 more than the previous record holder, Matt Chattin.

With the loss, Ave Maria falls to 2-1. They open SUN Conference play in their next game when they travel up to Babson Park to take on the Webber Warriors Thursday, November 10. The Gyrenes will finally come back home when they host the Southeastern Fire Saturday, November 12.