AVE MARIA, Fla. — Lavariah Armstead hit the shot of the season of at the end of regulation to send to the Ave Maria Women's Basketball team to overtime with the Keiser Seahawks Wednesday evening. With no timeouts and seven seconds left on the clock, the Gyrenes pushed the ball down the court and Armstead let a three fly from the wing that beat the buzzer and tied the game at 50.
However, the magic didn't extend into overtime as Keiser won the game 62-56.
For almost the entire regulation time, Keiser Ave Maria. The Gyrenes hit the first bucket of the game, but Keiser immediately tied it up. On the next possession, the Seahawks took the lead with a free throw and never looked back.
Ave Maria fell behind by 13 at one point in the first quarter but got back within seven points at halftime. The Gyrene defense held Keiser to just six points in the second quarter to get back in the game.
Out of halftime, the scoring picked up for both teams, but the Gyrenes kept making up ground on the Seahawks went into the fourth quarter only down two possessions.
The first six minutes of the fourth quarter was tough for the Gyrenes as Keiser went on a 9-4 run to get back up by 11 points.
Keiser held on to a double digit lead for a couple more minutes until the comeback started for the Gyrenes.
In the final 2 minutes and 20 seconds, Ave Maria went on an 11-1 run to tie the game and force an extra period. During the run, the Gyrenes forced three turnovers against the Seahawks and went 6-for-7 from the free throw line. Katie Ambrose hit two free throws with a minute left to bring Ave Maria within two. The Gyrenes got two looks at the basket in the last minute but missed both shots. After a foul, Keiser hit one of their two free throws with seven seconds left to set up the game-tying, buzzer beater three from Armstead.
In overtime, Ave Maria hit the first shot of the extra frame, another three pointer this time from Gianna Santacroce, to take their first lead of the game since the opening minutes of the first quarter. Keiser hit a two-pointer and then two more free throws to take the final lead of the game.
The loss drops Ave Maria to 3-3 in conference play and 7-10 overall. Wednesday night was the first overtime game of the season for the Gyrenes, with the last overtime game being January 24, 2024, against Webber. It is the first time since February of 2020 that Ave Maria has lost an overtime game, going 3-0 in the extra frame since then.
Armstead led the team in scoring with 16 points. Colleen Shanahan and Casey Humprey also hit double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Shanahan also led the team with 13 rebounds, recording her sixth double-double in a row and her seventh overall. Santacroce hit three trifectas in the game, bringing her career total to 201. She is only the second Gyrene in program history to have more than 200 career three-pointers, joining Emily Huber who holds the program record at 260.
Ave Maria stays home for their next game Saturday, January 18, against the St. Thomas Bobcats. The Bobcats beat their cross-town rival, Florida Memorial, Wednesday night to improve to 5-1 in conference play and 11-5 overall. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on the Sun Digital Network.
