Friday, January 15, 2010 by Eddie Anderson

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The Ave Maria University Men's Basketball Team came back to within 3 points from a 21 point deficit Friday night in front of a packed Ave Maria crowd. Despite AMU's efforts, the Royals took the 91-83 victory.

The 20th ranked Warner University Royals jumped out to an early 22-1 lead until a couple AMU free throws 6 minutes into the game by Dylan Fugate sparked the tremendous comeback. Twenty seconds later, AMU junior Chris Jordan blocked a shot by Warner to keep the score at 22-3. AMU's Chris Scanlan made two free throws and Chris Jordan bucketed 2 points to put the score at 24-7. Shortly thereafter, AMU's point guard Daniel Vivas contributed by hitting 3 three-point shots. The score going into halftime was 36-31 in favor of the Royals.

After the half, things continued to look promising for the young Gyrene squad. Warner University's Brennan Taylor hit a three-pointer to start the second period, but Dylan Fugate answered with a three-pointer of his own 21 seconds later. Then, AMU's Jimmy Torney made a steal and Chris Scanlan executed a two-point shot to get the Gyrenes within 3 points of the Royals (36-39). This was as close as the Gyrenes would get for the rest of the game. 

A solid shooting performance by Warner's point guard, Brennan Taylor kept the momentum in the Royal's favor for the remainder of the game. Taylor led all scorers with 27 points on 6 of 12 shooting. He went 5 for 6 from behind the arc to go along with a flawless 10 for 10 at the line. 

Dylan Fugate led AMU with 24 points going 8 for 16 from the field and 4 for 7 in three-point land. Chris Scanlan cashed in 15 on the night with 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 5 steals. Point guard Daniel Vivas had 14 with 4 assists and 2 steals. AMU's 6'8" big man, Jimmy Torney shot 50 percent and ended with 12 points.

The Gyrenes are now 6-9 overall while the Royals improved to 11-5 overall.

The AMU men play tomorrow after the women's basketball game which starts at 2 p.m. Tip-off for the men is at 4 p.m. when they square off at home against conference foe Webber International University (#30 in the NAIA poll). Both games will be played at the Donahue Academy Gymnasium.