AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria Men's Basketball team poured on 57 points in the first half as the Gyrenes cruised to a 99-80 victory over the Florida College Falcons. While Ave Maria has a reputation of being a sharp-shooting team from behind the perimeter, and did knock down eight threes to back up those claims, the Gyrenes dominated in the paint on Saturday, outscoring Florida College 50-28 near the basket.
The Falcons led for two minutes at the start of the game, but that was all the time Florida College would spend in front of the Gyrenes. Florida College's largest lead was three-points but was immediately erased by a layup from Amaan Sanni and a three-pointer from Lance Rawls that put the Gyrenes in front 9-7.
Those two baskets were the start of a 12-0 run for the Gyrenes. A few minutes later, Florida College hit a couple of shots to get back within five points of Ave Maria, but that was the closest the game would ever be for the rest of the way.
With a little over eight minutes left to play in the first half, junior transfer George Sabatini jammed his second dunk of the season to put the Gyrenes up by 11. From that point on, Ave Maria kept the margin at double digits for the rest of the game.
The Gyrenes went on a bit of a run at the end of the first half, outscoring Florida College 21-9 in the final five minutes. A layup from grad transfer Zane McCarty gave Ave Maria their largest lead of the afternoon at 28-points. McCarty knocked down two more free throws in the final seconds to send Ave Maria to the locker room up 57-30.
At 57 points, it was the highest scoring half since Ave Maria tallied 59 points in the first half against Friends in the Second Round of the NAIA National Championship last season.
Florida College outscored Ave Maria in the second half, but only by eight points as the Gyrenes remained firmly in front for the entire 20 minutes. AMU did not go on any long runs in the second half, the longest being three straight layups from Byrd and Sabatini, but did not have many scoring droughts either as they provided constant pressure throughout the half.
With under four minutes left, Ave Maria subbed in a few bench players to get their first minutes of the season. Maurizio D'Alessandro and Bryce Meitin each hit trifectas to bring AMU to 97 points. Bradley Michel hit two free throws to get the Gyrenes up 99, but the century mark ended up eluding the Gyrenes as they ran out of time.
"I loved our intensity in the first half," said head coach Jamon Copeland after the game. "I thought the first half was really good. The second half, we hit a wall, you know human nature come in…but overall proud of our guys I think we definitely took steps since our last game, but we just got to keep taking steps every day."
Sabatini led the team in scoring with 23 points, followed by Byrd with 14, Marlon Bennett with 12 and Alex Sherwood with 11. Sherwood also led the team on the glass with nine rebounds.
With the win, Ave Maria improves to 2-0 on the young season. Saturday was also the 150
th program win at home for the Gyrenes.
The Gyrenes are the road for their next two games as they head up to McKenzie, Tennessee, to compete in the Chick-Fil-A Classic. Ave Maria will take on two teams from the Volunteer State, playing Tennessee Southern and Bethel. The Gyrenes beat Tennessee Southern in the NAIA "The Show" Classic last season. The game against Bethel will be the first meeting between the two programs.
The Classic kicks off Friday, November 6, with the Gyrenes taking on the Tennessee Southern Fire Hawks. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. eastern / 6 p.m. central and the game will be streamed live on Hudl.
