LAKELAND, Fla. — Going into Saturday, if Ave Maria and Keiser ended in the same outcome, the two schools would be declared co-champs. Unfortunately for both teams, Saturday's result was a loss. However, since they did it together, the Ave Maria Men's Basketball team won a share of their first ever regular season title in program history.
As for the game on Saturday, the Gyrenes got out to their slowest start of the season and fell in overtime to the Southeastern Fire 83-80.
Ave Maria only scored 29 points in the first half as the Fire heavily dictated the pace. The first few minutes went the Gyrenes way as they hit their first four shots from the floor and took a six-point lead. That ended up being their largest lead of the afternoon.
Southeastern took the next five minutes to chisel away at the lead and took their first lead since the opening bucket around the 12-minute mark. The Fire led for the rest of the frame.
The Gyrenes shot just 39% from the field, going 11-for-28. Seven of those 11 shots were from downtown, led by Jonathan Effertz and Jaylen White each hitting three, but it wasn't enough to spark a run. Ave Maria went into the locker room at the end of the frame down by 10.
Coming out of halftime trailing by double digits, the Gyrenes brought a sense of urgency in the second frame. Ave Maria started to speed the game up and play at their familiar fast pace. The deficit hung around three possessions for first five minutes of the half, but then AMU ripped off an 8-0 run with three-pointers from Alex Sherwood and Bradley Alcime and layup from Effertz to turn a 10-point game into a two-point game. Ave Maria tied it up at 50 a minute later with a jumper from Sherwood.
The Gyrenes could not get in front however, and Southeastern raced out to another 10-point lead with five minutes left to play.
Again, Ave Maria was up for the challenge and showed why they were playing for a regular season title. Over the course of three minutes, the Gyrenes went on a 13-3 run to tie the game at 69. AMU went 4-for-6 from the field during the stretch, two of those from downtown, and hit three free throws to even the game up once more. The Gyrenes also forced five turnovers from the Fire, three off steals, as Southeastern collapsed in the final five minutes of regulation. Michael Klekas, who broke the program scoring record in the first half with a jumper, hit his first three of the night to punctuate the run and tie the game.
Both teams hit two free throws in the final minute, and the game remained tied after 40 minutes of play.
In the extra frame, Southeastern took the lead three separate times, but each was answered by the Gyrenes. Following the third lead taken by the Fire, Klekas knocked down his second three of the game to give Ave Maria their first lead since 13:08 remained in the first half.
The Fire hit a free throw to tie the game, then collected a layup with 24 seconds left to take a two-point lead. The Gyrenes opted for the quick bucket on the following possessions, tying the game at 80 with 15 seconds left. Southeastern held onto the ball and decided they were going to take the last shot of the game. Unfortunately for the Gyrenes, Southeastern hit a three at the top of the arc with 1.5 seconds left to seal the game.
Sherwood led the team with a season-high 23 points. Effertz joined in the 20+ club with 20 points of his own. Two more Gyrenes hit double figures as Jack Watkins scored 14 and White scored 13. Klekas recorded just seven, but broke the program record for career-points, now with 1672 over four seasons.
The sour feelings didn't last long though as Keiser fell to Coastal Georgia about 20 minutes later, locking the two teams as regular season co-champions. The Gyrenes and Seahawks both finish the year with a league record of 13-3.
"Just super excited for our university, our athletic department and our guys. Just to be able to experience this, what an honor," said head coach Jamon Copeland after hearing the news. "[The Sun is] an incredible conference and to be co-champions of the regular season is a pretty incredible accomplishment."
It is the first regular season title for the men's basketball program, which has finished either one or two games back of the title in six of the last seven years.
The Gyrenes now move onto the Sun Conference Tournament. They will get a bye in the Sun Conference quarterfinals and face the winner of Southeastern vs Webber in the semifinals. Keiser holds the tiebreaker over Ave Maria for home court in the tournament, so the Gyrenes' semifinal game will be in West Palm Beach on Friday, February 27, at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed live on the Urban Edge Network.
