BRUNSWICK, Ga. - The College of Coastal Georgia men's basketball team suffered their first Sun Conference loss on Saturday night, dropping their road contest with the Ave Maria Gyrenes by a final score of 107-76 in Ave Maria, Fla. 

The Gyrenes (6-2, 3-0 SUN), who came into the Saturday contest averaging 91 points per game, came out and went up 4-0 early on the Mariners (3-4, 2-1 SUN) before Valdy Zephir dunked the ball home to open the scoring for the Mariners. 

Scoring was at a premium for both sides through the first seven minutes of the contest as Ave Maria led just 6-2 at the media timeout with 13:07 left in the half. Coming out of the timeout, both sides remembered to take their respective lids off their rims as both sides started throwing in shots left and right. The Gyrenes extended that lead to 10-4 with just over 13 minutes on the clock, but the Mariners continued to keep the game close as Thaddeus Burns cut the lead to just two with a three pointer. 

As Ave Maria drove up their lead the Mariners responded each time until the Gyrenes went on a 12-4 run over three minutes of game time to take a 10 point lead with 6:31 remaining in the half. The Gyrenes held their lead until the 3:02 mark when CCGA mounted an 8-2 run of their own to get back in the game and bring the lead right back down to four with 53 seconds left in the half. Both sides traded points and with four seconds left in the half, the Gyrenes took the ball the length of the court and sunk a buzzer beater to end the half with a six point, 43-37, lead. 

Kaden McArthur led the Mariners into the locker room with 10 points on 3-8 shooting while Salle Wilson followed with eight, and Zephir added six. D'ontaye Strawter ended the first half with a game leading seven rebounds, which set a new career high with a half to play. 

McArthur scored the first five points for the Mariners out of the halftime break, but Ave Maria turned up the defensive pressure a few notches and had built a 16 point lead through the first six minutes of the second half as they led 62-46 at the first media timeout of the second half. From that point, Ave Maria never looked back and scored 64 points in the second half en route to a 107-76 final over the Mariners. 

McArthur finished with 22 points on the game, his second straight game with 20+ points, while Amaru Grosvenor finished with a new career high of 12 points in the loss. 

Ave Maria shot 56 percent from the field and splashed home 14 three pointers, setting a new season record for three pointers made and points in a game. 

CCGA will now turn their focus to Florida College as they welcome the Falcons to Brunswick on December 7. Tip off is set for 7:00 p.m. from Coffin Gym.