BABSON PARK, Fla. (January 7, 2021) – The Webber International University men's basketball team earned its second win this season over Ave Maria University, which was one of two teams tied for first place in The Sun Conference standings, by only one possession. In the end, the Warriors defeated the Gyrenes by a final score of 76-73 on Thursday night inside the Sabbagh Athletic Center.

Webber (7-10 overall, 3-4 The Sun Conference), which previously defeated Ave Maria (10-6, 4-3) 82-80 on the road back on November 30, outscored the Gyrenes 48-34 in the second half while shooting an incredible 73.68 percent (14-19) from the field in the period. Webber also made all three of its 3-point attempts in the second half, and made 17 of its 21 free throw attempts (80.95 percent) in the half.

Webber started the game trailing 12-2 seven minutes in and then trailed 23-9 10-and-a-half minutes in. It was then a 15-point Ave Maria lead at 31-16 with 6:45 left in the first half and was an 11-point game at 39-28 at the intermission. The Gyrenes finished the first half shooting 59.26 percent (16-27) from the field and 50 percent (5-10) from three.

In the second half, however, the Warriors came out looking like a different team, and got their deficit all the way back down to four at 48-44 on a 3-pointer by Marcus Massey with 15:41 left to play.

It was a 16-5 run for Webber, which eventually got within three points of Ave Maria at 59-56 with 9:22 to go after a 3-pointer by Deante Green, and then two free throws by Jaylon Myles with five minutes left made it only a two-point game at 66-64.

Webber finally tied it at 68-68 on a layup by Loro Natana with 3:14 remaining, and then a layup by Kris Goettert with two minutes to go gave Webber its first lead of the contest at 71-70.

Then in the final 33 seconds, two free throws by Eddie Davis made it 73-70, and then two free throws by Rasheem Etienne made it 75-72 with only nine seconds on the clock. From there, Head Coach Gabriel Rutledge elected to foul ahead by three points with six seconds left, and it worked great as Ave Maria missed the front end of its two free throws attempts before Etienne added one more free throw to make it a three-point game again.

"It was a great team win tonight", spoke Coach Rutledge. "I was extremely proud of the way the guys battled back in the second half and showed what true Warriors do when things aren't always going our way. We played great team defense in the second half while also holding one of the best shooting teams in our conference below their team average. We will continue to work hard on both ends of the floor, and will continue to strive to build this program the right way. Thank you for the support from both our faculty and student-athletes. Go Warriors."

Myles finished with a team-high 22 points for Webber on 50 percent shooting (8-16) from the field while Etienne scored 19 points also on 50 percent shooting (4-8). Etienne was also a strong 11-for-15 from the foul line.

Goettert finished with nine points and eight rebounds, Davis and Massey both had eight points, and Natana had seven points, six boards, three steals and two blocked shots.

In only two days, the Warriors will play on the road at nationally-recognized Southeastern University starting at 4 p.m. on Saturday, January 9, inside The Furnace in Lakeland, Florida.