AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria men's basketball team remained undefeated Tuesday night, beating the Johnson Suns 102-68 in their home opener. AMU hit triple digits on the scoreboard for the third time this season.
The non-conference contest started off pretty tight with the lead going back and forth between the two teams. Ave Maria's first four baskets of the game all came from behind the arc from four different shooters, but the Suns connected on layups and midrange jumpers to stay in the game with AMU.
Towards the middle of the first half, the Suns got out to a five-point lead, their biggest advantage of the night, with a three of their own. Ave Maria got within one with two quick layups, but another JU three put the Suns up 23-19.
Fortunately for Ave Maria, this is where the wheels fell off the bus for the Suns. Following that three pointer with seven and half minutes left to play in the half, the Suns went silent from the field and didn't score for almost six minutes. Johnson went 0-for-7, all from three-point range, and had three turnovers.
On the other side of the court, Ave Maria went on a 15-point run of their own, with two threes from Jack Watkins and Jonathan Effertz.
Johnson finally ended their scoring drought with a two-point jumper, but the Gyrenes went on another 6-0 run to make the halftime score 40-25.
At the break, Watkins led the team with 10 points and was the only Gyrene to hit multiple threes in the opening twenty minutes.
In the second half, the Gyrenes continued their dominant run, starting with a dunk from Watkins that got everybody in the gym fired up. Johnson responded with five points other their own, but that was the closest the Suns would get to Ave Maria for the rest of the game as the Gyrenes' lead never dipped below 12 after that.
Ave Maria played dominant ball for the rest of the second half and just continued to grow their lead.
Just like in the first half, right after the halfway point of the second, the Suns went cold from the field and AMU was able to double their lead from 15 points to 30 points thanks to 20-5 run, punctuated with another Watkins dunk.
The Gyrenes weren't done scoring however and were determined to get to triple digits for the third time in six games. With just a little over a minute remaining, Sean Gough hit his second three of the game to put Ave Maria exactly at 100 points.
In the final minute, the two squads exchanged layups and the Gyrenes walked off the court with a 102-68 victory.
With 62 points in the second half, it was the first time since 2019 AMU has put up 60 or more in a single frame.
Watkins led the team with 23 points with Michael Klekas, who was celebrating his birthday during the game, Mark Blaszczyk, Jaylen White, and Jai White joining him in the double figures club. Watkins, Blaszczyk and Gough were tied for the team lead in threes with two each.
With the win, Ave Maria improves to 6-0 on the season, averaging 98 points per game. That is fourth most points per game in the entire country and the most among teams who have played five or more games. Ave Maria also improves to 12-3 in home openers.
The Gyrenes will now take a week and a half off for Thanksgiving before making the trip up to Kingsport, Tennessee, to participate in the ninth annual NAIA "The Show" Classic. "The Show", which was inspired by the holiday tournaments and classics at the NCAA Division I level, features teams from across the country that normally would not see each other. The Gyrenes will take on the Pikeville Bears out of the Appalachian Athletic Conference Saturday, November 25, and the Indiana East Red Wolves out of the River States Conference Sunday, November 26.
