Bees win final tune-up before stretch run
Fighting for a spot in next month's CCAC Tournament, St. Ambrose defeated Emmaus Bible College 109-81 Monday night in the team's final non-conference game before entering the stretch run.
The Bees knocked down 16 3-pointers, in 34 attempts, and pulled away in the second half from a scrappy Emmaus team that buried 13 threes of its own.
After letting a 16-point lead slip down to nine over the final two minutes of the first half, St. Ambrose opened the second half with a 14-2 run to reassert control. The last 12 points of the spurt came on triples - three straight from Dylan Kaczmarek and the final one from Greg Wagner which extended the lead to 68-47.
Twelve of the Bees' 16 threes came in the second half.
John Payan and Garrett Faris combined for five 3-pointers late to help push the lead to 30 as SAU evened its record at 12-12 overall this season.
St. Ambrose used its size advantage to post a 49-28 rebounding edge. John Kerr and Blake Buls each pulled down four of the team's 20 offensive boards.
SAU shot better than 50 percent in each half and finished at 53.2 percent for the game.
Kerr finished with a 16-point, 14-rebound double-double in the win. He was 7-of-10 from the field. Jalen Jones connected on 7-of-9 shots in sharing team-high honors with 16 points.
Jake Meeske hit five threes in finishing with 15 points to go along with seven assists. Wagner came off the bench to shoot 4-of-5 from the floor for 10 points. Kaczmarek collected nine points, eight assists and five rebounds.
Led by Wagner, the Bees got big contributions from the bench. Payan totaled nine points, Michael Williams scored eight, Tyler Hilby netted seven, Faris finished with six and Warren Allen chipped in with five points, six rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
At 6-8 in the conference, the Bees are a game behind three teams tied for seventh place with six games remaining. Three other teams have tied for fourth with 8-6 league marks. St. Ambrose will host second-place Roosevelt Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. before hosting Calumet St. Joseph Saturday at 3 p.m.