AVE MARIA, Fla. (February 13, 2021) – After winning its first two games this season over the Gyrenes by only one possession, the Webber International University men's basketball team dropped the third and final game of its season series with Ave Maria University after a rough second half. After leading 40-32 at halftime, the Warriors were outscored 41-13 in the second half and fell by a final score of 73-53.

It was a back-and-forth first half that featured eight lead changes after Webber led 8-0 and then led 12-2 before Ave Maria tied it at 12-12 six and half minutes in.

The Warriors then went up as much as 11 points in the first half at 40-29 after two free throw by Justin Boyd with 41 seconds left before leading it by eight at the intermission.

Less than four and a half minutes into the second half, Ave Maria took a one-point lead at 41-40 and then continued its run to lead it 55-40 with 11:12 left to play. In all, it was a 23-0 run over nine-plus minutes for the Gyrenes, a stretch that saw the Warriors miss each of their nine shots from the field and each of their four free throw attempts while also turning it over six times. Ave Maria, meanwhile, went 10-for-16 from the field during its run, and at one point made seven straight shots.

After shooting 50 percent (14-28) from the field in the first half, Webber was only 4-for-27 (14.8 percent) from the field in the second half.

In his return to the lineup for the first time since November 21, Boyd finished with 11 points on three 3-pointers to lead the Warriors in scoring.

Rasheem Etienne also stuffed the stat sheet with five points, a team-high seven rebounds, and five assists.

Head Coach Gabriel Rutledge, "It's a tough loss. I thought our guys played extremely hard and executed our game plan very well in the first half. Unfortunately, we were unable to keep that momentum going in the second half. Ave Maria is a championship program, and they displayed it for 40 minutes. Although our overall record does not indicate the growth and success of our program, I still believe we are growing in the right ways to build a successful program. Go Warriors."

Webber, which dropped its sixth straight game and fell to 9-20 overall and 5-14 in The Sun Conference, is now only 1-13 in road games in 2020-21. Ave Maria, meanwhile, improved to 19-8 and 13-5 to keep its hopes for a share of the TSC regular-season title alive. The Gyrenes have now won nine of their last 10 games, including a stretch of five straight wins currently.

With only one game left in the regular season, next up for the Warriors will be their Senior Day at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 18, against the College of Coastal Georgia.