BRUNSWICK, Ga. - The College of Coastal Georgia women's basketball team dropped their third straight contest on Saturday afternoon as they fell to the Ave Maria Gyrenes inside Tom Golisano FIeld House.
The first quarter was very tightly contested by both sides, with the biggest lead of the quarter for either side being just four points. Taylor Gardner got the scoring started for the Mariners (4-4, 0-3 SUN) which was immediately answered by the Gyrenes (3-2, 2-1 SUN) with a layup of their own. After Ave Maria took a 5-2 lead, a 1-2 trip from Jasmin Worsley from the free throw line and a three pointer from Morgon Webb capped a quick 4-0 run which put CCGA right back on top. Peyton Shafer pushed the lead up to three with a pair of free throws with 5:54 left in the quarter, but Ave Maria outscored CCGA 5-3 over the next minute of game time to tie the game at 10 a piece. From that point, the Gyrenes outscored the Mariners 8-4 to finish the quarter and took their four point, 18-14, lead into the quarter break.
The Gyrenes pushed that lead out to six right out of the break with a jumper from Colleen Shanahan, which Alli Stone answered with a three pointer of her own to cut the lead back down to just three. Maylei Noreika added a three as well with 6:40 left in the half to trim the lead down to two, but that was as low as the Gyrenes lead would dip for the remainder of the quarter. From the 6:16 mark until the end of the quarter, Ave Maria went on a 12-4 run to push out their lead going into the halftime break as they led 34-24 going into the locker room.
Stone led the Mariners at the half with seven points and three rebounds as the Mariners were held to their second lowest halftime total of the season. CCGA shot just 29 percent from the field and were held scoreless for the final 4:25 of the first half.
After getting a stop out of the break, Tyler Butler finally introduced herself to the contest with a layup to get the deficit back into single digits. Webb and Butler both added layups to follow, sparking a quick 6-0 run to get the Mariners right back in the game as Ave Maria led 34-30. Later in the quarter after another Gyrenes run, Butler once again got the Mariners to within four with a three point play, but Ave Maria continued to answer every CCGA bucket and led by nine going into the fourth quarter.
Once the Gyrenes went up 54-43 at the 7:50 mark of the fourth quarter, the lead never dipped back below double digits for the Mariners in the ballgame as they dropped their third straight contest to the Gyrenes by a final score of 70-59.
Webb finished as the leading scorer for the Mariners with 20 points, a new season high, on 7-13 shooting and 4-7 shooting from three. Webb was the only Mariner to score in double figures as the next highest total was from Jasmin Worsley with eight.
CCGA improved their shooting numbers drastically, improving to 33 percent from the field and 41 percent from three, they just could not keep up with the Gyrenes who moved to 2-1 in conference play following the win.
The Mariners will now dip out of Sun Conference play until January 4, 2025. CCGA returns to action on Tuesday when they welcome in the Brewton-Parker Lady Barons. Tip off is set for 5:30 p.m. from Howard Coffin Gym.
