WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —- After a tight first half, the Ave Maria Men's Basketball team blew the game wide open in the second half of the Sun Conference Semifinal against the Florida Memorial Lions. The Gyrenes went on to win 81-70 to advance to the Sun Conference Championship.
The Lions led for the majority of the first half. The early stages were relatively close between the two teams, but FMU was able to stay in front of the Gyrenes. Five of Ave Maria's first six baskets were from downtown. The fifth trifecta tied the game at 17. However, FMU went on a 6-0 run following the three-pointer to gain their largest lead of the night.
Ave Maria worked their way out of that deficit and back to a one score game. In the final two minutes of the half, Jaylen White hit two big threes to give AMU a 32-30 lead. After Florida Memorial hit two free throws to tie, Michael Klekas hit a free throw to put the Gyrenes back on top by one. Ave Maria took the 33-32 lead into the half.
The Gyrenes shot 34.4% from the floor in the first half, going 11-for-32 from the floor. Eight of those 11 baskets were from behind the arc.
"[In the first half], they sped us up. We weren't playing offense like we typically do," said head coach Jamon Copeland. "We had no off-ball action going on in our motion. The good news was at halftime, we told them 'Hey fellas, we are horrific offensively right now, playing horrific basketball, [but] we're up one. Now, we gotta play Ave Maria basketball and we will be fine.'"
The Gyrenes were more than just fine in the second half.
Out of the break, the Gyrenes dictated the tempo the way they wanted and started the second half with a 12-0 run in the first two minutes. All 12 points were scored off four straight three-pointers, three of which were from Klekas, the other from Nick Filchner.
The run put the Gyrenes so far ahead of the Lions that Ave Maria was rarely in danger for the rest of the half. The closest Florida Memorial ever got was within seven points, but the Lions never closed the gap to two possessions.
Ave Maria hit three more threes in the second half to finish the game with 15. Klekas ended the game with six three-pointers, a season-high for any Gyrene.
FMU tried to hit the last shot, but missed four three-pointers as Ave Maria drained the clock to win 81-70.
"[I'm] just proud of our guys," said Copeland. "I thought the second half we settled down. We got a lot more off-ball action, the ball was popping and we were sharing it a lot more. The ball has energy. When you touch it, you play better. I thought we exploded in the second half offensively."
With the win, Ave Maria improves to 23-6 on the year and moves onto the Sun Conference Championship. It is the third ever trip to the Championship game for the Gyrenes and the first since 2022. Friday was also Ave Maria's 10th Sun Conference Tournament win in program history.
Klekas led the team in scoring with a season-high 25 points. The Gyrenes had three other scorers in double figures with Filcnher at 13, White at 12 and Jack Watkins at 10.
Awaiting the Gyrenes in the final is the Southeastern Fire. The Fire finished fourth in the Sun Conference with a league record of 8-8. Southeastern beat New College in the quarterfinals Tuesday and then got past the number one seed Keiser Seahawks in the early game on Friday. Ave Maria and Southeastern split the regular season series, with the home team winning each game. Southeastern is looking for their fourth championship while Ave Maria is looking for their second. The winner gets the automatic bid to the NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament.
Tipoff for the championship game is set for 5 p.m. in West Palm Beach hosted by Keiser. The game will be streamed live on the Sun Digital Network.
