MEN’S AND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
TRIUMPHANT SEASONS DESPITE TRAGEDY To this resounding chant, the men’s basketball team accomplished something that had never been achieved in the history of AMU’s athletic team sports—a Sun Conference Championship. In an emotional championship game, the Gyrenes defeated Coastal Georgia by a score of 83-67, capping off an impressive turnaround season that saw them win 19 more games than the previous season. The victory was enhanced by the presence of the girls’ basketball and softball teams, and hundreds of classmates who chanted the number “23” in honor of their fellow student, Emily Acosta, who was killed in a tragic car accident three days before the game (see related story). In a stunning coincidence, the championship game was
Southwestern (Kan.) in the NAIA Division II National Tournament. The tremendous job by fourth-year head coach John Lamanna won him the Sun Conference Co-Coach of the Year award. “It was a season of firsts,”
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“Twenty-three! Twenty-three!”
the Gyrenes’ twenty-third victory of the season, played on the twenty-third of the month. Draped on an empty chair on the bench was Emily’s jersey, #23. The men’s season came to an end on March 7 in Sioux Falls, SD with an 89-80 loss to
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