Warren Allen, Jake Meeske and John Kerr combined for 62 points to lead St. Ambrose to an 84-82 win at Olivet Nazarene in the CCAC opener for both teams Wednesday night.

Allen led the Bees with 25 points, which included two late free throws that gave SAU an 82-79 lead with 19 seconds to play, and had a big steal in the closing seconds that helped seal the win.

After Olivet Nazarene (4-3, 0-1 CCAC) tied the game with a 3-pointer, Ben Schols knocked down two free throws with nine seconds left to give St. Ambrose an 84-82 lead. The Tigers turned to two-time reigning conference player of the week Nic Reed, who hit the game-tying triple seconds earlier, but this time Allen stripped him of the ball before he could attempt his potential go-ahead three.

With four seconds to play, Allen missed his two free throws but grabbed the offensive rebound. His put-back was off the mark but left ONU less than a second on the clock. A desperation full-court pass was untouched and the Bees were able to inbound the ball and run out the clock to open conference play with an important road victory. SAU managed just one conference road win all of last season.

The Bees trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half but used a big run to take the lead. Allen scored six straight points and Tom Kazanecki and Schols followed with 3-pointers as SAU closed the half with 12 consecutive points for a 47-44 lead at the break.

A seven-point run gave St. Ambrose a double-digit lead of its own at 74-64 with 2:36 remaining. An Allen jumper had the lead at 76-66 with less than two minutes to go. But the Tigers hit three 3-pointers down the stretch to eventually tie the game leading to Schols' game winners.

Allen was 10-of-16 from the floor in netting his 25 points. He also shared team-high honors with eight rebounds with Michael Williams.

Meeske scored 19 on 6-of-9 shooting and Kerr hit seven of his nine shots in dropping in 18 points. Kerr also pulled down seven boards. Schols and Kazanecki each finished with seven points and Dylan Kaczmarek totaled six points.

Thanks to 18-of-29 shooting (62.1 percent) in the first half, the Bees shot nearly 58 percent from the floor overall as a team. That helped SAU survive its 22 turnovers.

St. Ambrose (5-1, 1-0 CCAC) will head on its 10-day trip to Ireland beginning Thursday riding a three-game winning streak.