St. Ambrose opened the second half with a 13-2 run to get past St. Francis 83-70 Saturday afternoon in Lee Lohman Arena.

The win, the Bees' second in a row, moved the team back to .500 overall at 7-7. SAU is 3-4 in the CCAC.

The Bees fought off 15 first-half turnovers to hold a 37-36 lead, thanks to 53.3 percent shooting, at the break.

The strong shooting continued after halftime. Dylan Kaczmarek started the second half with a 3-pointer. Lee Hardrick then knocked down a jumper. After St. Francis scored to get within 42-38, John Kerr scored inside before Kaczmarek buried another three to extend the lead to 47-38. Jake Meeske closed the run with a three-point play, his only points of the game, to push the lead to 50-38.

The Saints (4-7, 2-3 CCAC) got as close as seven points midway through the second half, but Kerr and Warren Allen combined for all the Bee points during a 9-1 run that put the lead at 67-52 with under nine minutes to go.

Blake Buls later scored four points in a 24-second span to give St. Ambrose its largest lead at 71-54. The margin was double digits the rest of the way.

SAU shot 56.7 percent as a team thanks to Kerr, Kaczmarek, Buls and Allen. Kerr was 7-of-9 from the floor in scoring a game-high 19 points. He also led all players with seven rebounds. Kaczmarek hit four of his five 3-point attempts in finishing with 12 points. He added six assists, five boards and four steals.

Buls was a perfect 5-of-5 from the field in netting 10 points to go along with his six rebounds. Allen was 4-for-5 for nine points. Hardrick was the other Bee to reach double figures, finishing with 13 points. Michael Williams came off the bench to drop in seven points.

The Bees will now have a break over the holidays before returning to the court to host Hannibal-LaGrange on Jan. 4.