Photos - John Schultz (Quad-City Times)

St. Ambrose outscored Olivet Nazarene 14-5 over the final three-plus minutes to defeat the Tigers 71-68 Wednesday night inside Lee Lohman Arena in the CCAC opener for both teams.

The Bees relied on leading scorers Jake Meeske and Lee Hardrick and a trio of freshmen down the stretch in a game featuring the NAIA's first- and third-winningest active coaches (ONU's Ralph Hodge has 763 wins in his 39th season and SAU's Ray Shovlain has 630 wins in his 35th year).

Trailing 63-57, freshman John Kerr started the run with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit in half. Then Meeske knocked down a jumper to pull the Bees to within 63-62. After another stop, freshman Dylan Kaczmarek buried a three off a pass from fellow freshman Warren Allen to give SAU a 65-63 lead.

ONU (2-4, 0-1 CCAC) answered with a three of its own to retake a 66-65 lead. On the next SAU possession, Kerr tracked down an offensive rebound of a Meeske miss and hit two free throws to put the Bees back in front. Another stop led to a Meeske free throw and a 68-66 lead with 42.7 seconds left.

The Tigers took a three for the lead but it was off the mark and Allen pulled down a big rebound in traffic leading to two Hardrick free throws to extend the lead to 70-66. Olivet Nazarene hit a jumper to get within two before Meeske hit 1-of-2 from the line with 5.3 seconds left to end the scoring.

The win came after the Bees faced deficits of 11 points in both the first and second half.

Meeske and Allen helped SAU battle back from down 44-33 four minutes into the second half. They each hit two shots, and Hardrick added another jumper, in a 10-0 run that got St. Ambrose close, setting up the final minutes.

Meeske finished with a team-high 20 points. Allen added 12 points and a team-leading nine rebounds. He had six points and seven boards in the second half. Kerr came up with 10 of his 12 points after halftime.

Hardrick chipped in with 10 points and Blake Buls netted nine.

The Bees were able to offset an 11-for-21 performance from the line by holding the Tigers to 35.4 percent shooting from the floor for the game.

SAU, now 5-2 overall, will next visit Roosevelt Saturday at 3 p.m.