AVE MARIA, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team took to the road to snap their four-game losing streak, gutting out a 79-72 victory over the Ave Maria Gyrenes for their first Sun Conference victory of the season. ERAU improves to 5-5 overall and 1-1 in league play, while AMU slips to 3-4 and 0-1.
 
The Gyrenes opened the game with a 9-0 run, capped by a layup from Dylan Fugate, before the Eagles even got on the board thanks to a DeForest Carter bucket at the 16:39 mark.
 
The Blue and Gold chipped away at the Gyrene lead until they cut the deficit to 17-15 with 11:35 remaining in the first, but the Gyrenes would go on a 13-7 run to grow their margin to eight points at 30-22.
 
Embry-Riddle employed a full-court press against the hosts about halfway through the first half and was able to battle to within 36-33 at the halftime buzzer.
 
ERAU was plagued by early turnovers and poor shooting, averaging just 36% from the field in the first half. ERAU could not seem to find an answer for AMU's Kiel Lewis in the first half as the Gyrene junior was 7-for-12 from the floor in the opening period, going for 15 points to lead all scorers at the half. Ray Graham and Jeremiah Applin paced the visitors with eight points apiece.
 
In the second half, the Eagles made a commitment of getting the ball inside as Graham tallied 11 of his team-high 19 points in the second period, including ERAU's first basket of the second half, a dunk that cut the Gyrene lead to 38-35.
 
AMU kept the lead until the 10 and a half minute mark when Carter buried a pair of free throws to give Embry-Riddle a one-point advantage at 56-55.
 
After the Gyrenes tied the game at 59-59, Billy Serle hit his third of four three-point field goals to give ERAU their biggest lead of the night. That sparked a 20-13 run for ERAU to end the game, thanks to some impressive ball movement that allowed Eagles to get easy buckets.
 
The dagger came when Serle hit his final trey of the evening with two minutes remaining, and after a missed shot by Ave Maria, Graham sealed the win with a dunk on the other end. The Eagle defense held AMU to just three points in the final two minutes of play.
 
The Eagles shot 62.5% in the second half, including a 4-for-7 clip behind the arc while holding their opponents to 2-of-9 shooting from three in the frame. ERAU out-rebounded AMU 20-9 in the second half, and shot 65.7% from the charity stripe.
 
Graham led the Blue and Gold with 19 points and nine boards, while also picking up two steals. DeForest Carter added 16 points, nine rebounds, five assists a block and a pair of steals, while Serle poured in 12 points in just 14 minutes of action.

Lewis led all scorers with 23 points for Ave Maria.
 
The Eagles' next contest will be Dec. 16 when they play host to Mount Vernon Nazarene at the ICI Center in Daytona Beach.