St. Ambrose rode a big first half from Michael Williams and made some big shots down the stretch to defeat Saint Xavier 84-78 in a physical conference battle Tuesday night in Lee Lohman Arena.

In a contest of conference unbeatens, the Bees take over sole possession of first place in the CCAC with a perfect 5-0 league mark. SAU, which has won six in a row, is 8-1 overall.

It was Williams who carried St. Ambrose to a fast start. The junior forward scored the team's first eight points and had 12 of the first 16, helping to open up a 16-8 lead five minutes in. In a game of early runs, Tom Kazanecki then took over, scoring seven straight for the Bees to push the lead to 23-13.

Saint Xavier (7-2, 3-1 CCAC) responded with 12 straight points to grab a 25-23 lead. Then Williams went back to work. He hit three 3-pointers over a two-minute stretch, and aided by a Patrick Torrey basket, SAU jumped back in front 34-27.

Williams was 8-of-9 from the floor including 5-for-5 from beyond the arc, in dropping in 21 points over his 14 first-half minutes to lead St. Ambrose to a 40-33 lead at the break.

But when Williams' scoring slowed in the second source, the Bees got contributions from other sources to hold off the Cougars.

With the game tied at 58-58 with 11 minutes remaining, John Kerr scored on four straight possessions to give SAU a 66-58 lead. It was a lead the Bees would never relinquish.

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Kazanecki and Dylan Kaczmarek built a 10-point lead at 74-64 with 4:23 left. Saint Xavier closed to within three points twice in the final three minutes, the last time at 77-74 with 1:42 to go. After the teams traded empty possessions, Ben Schols knocked down a huge three from in front of the Bee bench inside the final minute to up the lead to 80-74. SXU twice got it back to four points but free throws from Jake Meeske and Schols kept it at a six-point margin.

Williams finished with 22 points while Kerr scored 14 in the second half to end with 16. Kazanecki scored 10, Schols had nine and Kaczmarek ended with eight points and eight rebounds. Kerr also grabbed eight boards in the victory.

The Bees were able to withstand a 10-of-18 performance from the line by shooting 54 percent from the floor. After shooting 50 percent (17-of-34) in the first half, they upped it to 60 percent (15-of-25) in the second half.

SAU will step out of conference to face Mount Marty at a neutral site in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Saturday at 5:30 p.m.