Playing the hottest team in the conference, St. Ambrose saw its season come to an end with a 69-61 loss to Holy Cross in a CCAC Tournament quarterfinal game in Notre Dame, Ind., Wednesday night.

The Saints, winners of 14 in a row and ranked No. 9 in the country, led throughout but the Bees made things interesting down the stretch.

After trailing by as many as 13 points early in the second half and still down 10 at 59-49 with five minutes remaining, St. Ambrose made a run. A 3-pointer from Dylan Kaczmarek sparked a 12-4 spurt that ended with a John Kerr three to cut the deficit to 63-61 inside the final minute.

But Holy Cross (26-5) hit two free throws to restore a two-possession lead and the Saints closed out the win with four more free throws while the Bees would not score again after the Kerr triple.

A slow start derailed any upset plans for St. Ambrose.

The Bees missed their first seven shots from the floor and connected on just 7-of-32 shots in the opening half, a dismal 21.9 percent mark. Despite the poor shooting, SAU trailed by just seven before Holy Cross scored the final four points of the half to build a 31-20 lead at the break.

St. Ambrose found the range in the second half, shooting at a 53.6-percent clip (15-of-28), but Holy Cross neveral surrendered the lead, and hit 12-of-14 from the line, all in the second half, to advance to a tournament semifinal Friday night.

Tom Kazanecki scored a game-high 22 points, with 15 of those coming in the second half. Kerr also had a big second half, scoring 12 of his 14 after halftime. Kerr also led all players with 11 rebounds.

Kaczmarek scored 11 points while Michael Williams came off the bench to contribute nine points. In his final collegiate game, Jake Meeske handed out four assists to go along with five rebounds.

SAU, which started the year 10-2, lost seven of its final nine games to finish 16-15 overall.