AVE MARIA, Fla.—Southeastern had a hard time keeping pace with the top 3-point shooting team in the NAIA in its home building with a season-ending loss in The Sun Conference Quarterfinal.
Ave Maria connected on nearly half of its 3-point attempts to come away with an 81-71 win over the Fire to advance to Friday's semifinal.
After trailing by as much as 18 with 11:28 to play, the Fire (14-14) got within six with 2:00 to go then got a steal by
Derek Murphy coming out of a timeout but were unable to collect the ball and find a shooter before it rolled out of bounds. The Gyrenes pumped in their 12
th 3-pointer of the night on the following possession.
Reggie Mesidor, in his final game with the Fire, scored a layup at the 4:54 mark and then got another one off a missed free throw to get his team withing eight. Mesidor led all scorers with 20 points and had eight rebounds, four steals, and three assists.
Southeastern was able to dial in its shot much better in the second half, going 17-of-37 for the field, but the 11-for-37 (29%) effort in the first half was too much to overcome.
The Gyrenes (20-8) got a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to go up 38-26 at the break, then held the Fire to just two points the first five minutes of the second half to build a 17-point lead. Southeastern had five turnovers and were 1-for-10 from the field to start the second with half of the shots coming from outside the 3-point arc.
Joshua Blazquez was also in double figures with 19 points and
Sean Shore added 10 points, six rebounds, and two steals.
