AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Gyrenes dropped their second game in a row Friday night at the hands of the Florida College Falcons, 92-87. Ave Maria had no answer to the Falcons three-point game, which hit 13 trifectas in the game, tied for the most the Gyrenes have seen this season.
Florida College grabbed the lead early on in the first half and never let it go for the remainder of the period. The Falcons first half was powered by Tyshon Judge who started the game 4-for-4 from downtown. Judge end the opening 20 minutes with 24 points, more than half of the Falcons' 47.
On the Gyrene side, Jonathan Effertz did his best to copy the performance, hitting five threes for 15 points at the break.
Multiple times, Ave Maria found themselves down by 10 points in the first half but found ways to grind back into a one or two possession game. With less than two minutes left to play in the half, Florida College made two free throws to take a five-point lead, but two Ave Maria layups made it a one-point game at the half.
Effertz hit his sixth three right out of the gates in the second half to give Ave Maria their first lead since the opening minutes of the first half. Unfortunately, it would also be their last lead. The Falcons hit two free throws to tie the game at 49 and then a three one possession later to take the advantage. Florida College didn't relinquish the lead for the rest of the game after that.
Ave Maria fell down by 10 and 11 points again multiple times in the second half, but never really felt out of the game until the very end.
In the final minute of the game, the Gyrenes hit a three and two layups to make it close, but the clock hit zeros with Florida College on top 82-87.
Effertz led the team in points, hitting three more threes to get up to 24 points. With eight three-pointers on the game, the sophomore from Cleveland, Ohio, becomes just the fifth Gyrene in school history to hit eight or more trifectas in a game. He joins teammate Miles Monchecourt who hit eight threes against Florida Memorial last season. In tonight's game, Monchecourt recorded third double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Michael Klekas, Nick Filchner and Jaylen White also joined the double-digit club with 16, 15 and 13 points respectively.
Ave Maria has a quick turnaround for the next game, making the trip out Boca Raton Saturday, December 2, to take on the Lynn Fighting Knights. This will be an exhibition for the Gyrenes as the Fighting Knights are an NCAA Division II school out of the Sunshine State Conference. In their first exhibition of the season, the Gyrenes gave a scare to the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, falling by just nine points in FGCU's home opener.
The next game on the schedule for the Gyrenes that counts towards their record is Monday, December 11, at home against the New College of Florida Mighty Banyans. NCF, who is in their inaugural season as a program, will join the Sun Conference for the 2024-25 season making this upcoming game a preview of what next year might look like. New College has already played St. Thomas, Florida Memorial and Southeastern this season and has a few more Sun teams on their schedule as they prepare to join the conference. Tip-off is set for 7:00 and the game can be live streamed on the Sun Digital Network.
