AVE MARIA, Fla. (November 30, 2020) – After a go-ahead layup by Terrance Lakes with 1:07 left to play, the Webber International University men's basketball team picked up its first Sun Conference win of the season, defeating Ave Maria University 82-80 on the road on Monday night.

With 2:07 remaining in the game, a layup by Lakes tied the game at 74-74, and a minute later the go-ahead bucket by Lakes came off the pass by Rasheem Etienne after a steal to put the Warriors up 76-74.

From there, Eitenne made four free throws in a row with 20 seconds left to make it a 5-point game at 80-75. Ave Maria, however, would not go away easily, scoring a layup with 11 seconds left to make it 80-77, followed by a 3-pointer with only two seconds left to make it 81-80 before a final free throw by Loro Natana.

Lakes led Webber with a career-high 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting. As a team, Webber had at least five Warriors finish in double figures in scoring for the second game in a row.

Jaylon Myles, the reigning Sun Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week, finished with 17 points, and Kris Goettert had 16 points on 60 percent shooting from the field.

Next in scoring was Deante Green with a career-high in points as well with 12 on 4-for-4 shooting from 3-point range.

Etienne finished with 11 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the free throw line while adding five assists and a new career-best five steals, and Natana led the Warriors in rebounds with nine, a new career-high for him in boards as well.

"I am extremely proud to be a Warrior tonight," spoke Head Coach Gabriel Rutledge. "As a team, we faced true adversity on the road, but we did a great job of staying together and making winning plays late. My assistants did a great job preparing the team after a quick turnaround. We had multiple guys step up and make a difference in the game. We are taking big steps forward as a program. Go Warriors."

Early in the game, the Warriors held two early six-points leads in the first half, first at 11-5 three minutes in and then again at 16-10 five and a half minutes in before Ave Maria came back to tie it at 18-18.

Then after a 3-pointer by Myles made it 21-18 Warriors with 9:22 left in the first half, the Gyrenes took the lead with a 12-0 run to go ahead 30-21 with 5:20 to go before halftime.

Goettert stopped the Gyrenes' run with a 3-pointer of his own to make the score 30-24 with five minutes to go before halftime. Goettert was responsible for 14 of Webber's first 24 points of the game to that point.

Ave Maria then went ahead by as much as 12 points at 43-31 with a minute to go in the first half, but a three in the final 30 seconds by Green followed by a buzzer beater for three by Etienne made it only a six-point game at 43-37 at the break.

Then in the second half, Webber trailed until a 3-pointer by Lakes with 9:21 left put the Warriors ahead for the first time in the second half at 61-60, and then the lead changed three more times before Webber found itself down by four at 72-68 with four minutes left.

A layup by Myles got Webber back to within two at 72-70 with 3:35 on the clock before two free throws by Etienne tied it at 72-72 with 2:53 to go, setting up the deciding final two minutes for the Warriors.

One big difference statistically in favor of the Warriors was that of turnovers, with only 11 turnovers being committed by Webber compared to 23 by Ave Maria, which contributed to a big 30-10 advantage in points off turnovers for the Warriors.

In addition to being the first conference win of the season for Webber, which improved to 4-5 overall and 1-2 in The Sun Conference, it was also the Warriors' first road win of the season, and was the end of Webber's four-game losing skid against the Gyrenes. Now, three of the last four meetings between Webber and Ave Maria, which fell to 4-4 and 2-1 with its first conference loss of the season, have been decided by three points or less.

Next up, Webber will return home to kick off the month of December by hosting the Bobcats of St. Thomas University. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 3, inside the Sabbagh Athletic Center.