AVE MARIA, Fla. — If it ended up being their last home game of the season, the Ave Maria Men's Basketball team made the most of it as the Gyrenes beat the St. Thomas Bobcats 89-68. The Gyrenes had a breakout second half where they outscored St. Thomas 51-43 and took control of the game.
The first half was a low scoring defensive battle between the Bobcats and Gyrenes. The two teams passed the lead around three different times in the opening 10 minutes and neither team led by more than four points. St. Thomas led for seven and a half minutes in the opening quarter of the game before the Gyrenes started to get buckets to fall.
From the middle of the opening frame to under four minutes to play, Ave Maria went on a 19-4 run to retake the lead and then race ahead of the Bobcats. The Gyrenes went 9-for-12 from the field during the run and got baskets from five different players. Jonathan Effertz led the bunch with a layup and a trifecta for five points. On the flip side of the floor, St. Thomas hit just two layups and went 0-for-6 from downtown.
The two teams played even in the final four minutes and the Gyrenes took a 13-point lead into the break.
The start of the second half resembled the opening frame with just 11 points between the two squads in the opening five minutes. However, the Gyrenes found their rhythm and went on another long run, outscoring the Bobcats 13-0 in two and a half minutes. Marlon Bennett got the run started with his second three-pointer of the game. Jack Watkins hit back-to-back layups after swiping the ball on an inbound play and Alex Sherwood followed that up with a three from the corner. Bennett ended the run with a layup.
The run put the Gyrenes up 25 points and Ave Maria cruised for the final 12 points on their way to a 21-point win.
"It was a really good win. That's a really good team," said head coach Jamon Copeland following the game. "They really dictate pace. I thought the first half the game was kind of in their favor with the pace of the game, but we did a lot better job in the second half getting it sped up. But just really proud of our guys. Awesome effort there."
Watkins led the team in scoring with 20 points, tying his season-high. Three other Gyrenes hit double figures with Effertz scoring 18, Bennett logging 15 and Jaylen White recording 11. Michael Klekas scored seven points which tied him for the most career-points in program history with Ave Maria Hall of Famer Kiel Lewis. Both are currently at 1665.
With the win, Ave Maria improves to 13-2 in conference play and 24-3 overall. In West Palm Beach, the Keiser Seahawks beat Florida Memorial to also improve to 13-2 in league play. The two teams remain tied for first place in the Sun Conference. If both teams win tomorrow, they will finish as regular season co-champs. Keiser would host the conference tournament however because they would own the tiebreaker going down the standings. For Ave Maria to own sole possession of the regular season title and host the tournament, they need to win on Saturday and have Keiser lose to Coastal Georgia.
The team standing in the way of the Gyrenes on Saturday is the Southeastern Fire. Ave Maria dropped their first Sun Conference game at home against Southeastern and now need a win in Lakeland, something they haven't gotten since 2020, to own a share of the regular season title. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on the Urban Edge Network.
