MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The Ave Maria University women's basketball team dropped their first game of the season losing to the Brewton-Parker College 65-60 in their first of two games in the SSAC-SUN challenge. The Gyrenes came close to tying the Barons late in the game, but a few missed shots preserved BPC's victory. 

Both teams got off to a slow start in the first quarter, with Ave Maria going 0-for-1 on three pointers. Despite that, the Gyrenes made high percentage shots inside the arc and were leading 14-11 through one quarter.

In the second quarter, the Barons stormed back, took the lead and never looked back. BPC put up 20 points to just Ave Maria's 13 and led 31-27 at the half. During the first half, Ave Maria only attempted three three-pointers and missed all of them. In the first two games of their season, the Gyrenes used the three-pointer as a big part of their game, making 11 in their game against the Virgin Islands. 

In the third quarter, the Barons continued to add onto their lead and the Gyrenes' struggles from behind the arc continued. The Gyrenes kept making their two's though and entered the fourth quarter only down six. 

In the final quarter, BPC got out to a 13-point lead with only five minutes left to go. The Gyrenes didn't quit though and came back with a vengeance to make the game interesting. Ave Maria went on a 13-2 run, capped by back-to-back three-pointers, the first ones of the game for AMU, by Casey Humphrey, and were 2 points away from tying the game with 1:35 left to play. 

Unfortunately for the Gyrenes, BPC held on and scored six points in the final minutes of the game to win 65-60. 

Humphrey led the team in points Friday, scoring 26, a career high for the sophomore. 

With the loss, the Gyrenes fall to 2-1. Their next game is Saturday, November 5, against the Middle Georgia Knights in their final game as part of the SSAC-SUN Challenge.