With their season on the line, the Bees got the win they needed, and a little help, on Senior Day. St. Ambrose used a 78-72 come-from-behind victory over Trinity Christian paired with an Indiana Northwest 90-77 win over Viterbo to earn the eighth and final spot in the upcoming CCAC Tournament.

SAU (15-12) finished the regular season with an 8-12 conference mark. That put them a game ahead of Viterbo in the final league standings.

But it didn't come easy.

After honoring seven seniors before the game - Atem Agot, Austin Born, Elgin Bowen Jr., Kieran Farrell, Grant Mason, Will Spriggs and Brock Zitzloff - the Bees got off to a slow start.

Trinity Christian (8-20, 5-15 CCAC) scored the game's first five points, and St. Ambrose fell behind by as many as 13 points at 29-16 late in the first half. A 14-6 run to close the half, highlighted by four points from both Born and Mason, helped the Bees claw back to within 35-30 at the break.

The deficit increased to nine points before back-to-back threes from Agot got the Bees going. The Trolls scored to go up 53-48 before layups from Ignacio Dacunda and Mason closed the gap to a single point. TCC hit one free throw and another Dacunda layup knotted the score at 54-54 with just under nine minutes left.

A pair of Spriggs free throws gave SAU its first lead of the game at 62-61 with less than six minutes remaining. But after Trinity Christian rebuilt a 67-66 lead, it was an Agot layup that gave St. Ambrose the lead for good.

That was followed by two Dacunda free throws and a Spriggs layup that extended the lead to 72-67 inside the final two minutes. Spriggs added two from the line to extend the lead to 74-67 with 36 seconds on the clock. Spriggs hit two more free throws to complete a 10-0 run that put SAU in front 76-67.

The Trolls scored five points in the final five seconds, sandwiched around two more freebies from Spriggs, to account for the final score.

SAU shot nearly 54 percent from the field, compared to a 42.2 percent mark for TCC, and finished with a 40-25 rebounding edge. That was offset by 14 turnovers leading to 15 Troll points. Trinity committed just six turnovers leading to a mere six St. Ambrose points.

Spriggs led five Bees in double figures with 18 points. Agot and Dacunda each scored 14. Dacunda also pulled down nine rebounds.

Guillermo Narbona finished with 12 points, 15 rebounds and four assists. Mason chipped in with 11 points. Born narrowly missed double figures, finishing with nine points.

The CCAC Tournament will begin with quarterfinal games Tuesday. The semifinals will be played Thursday and the championship game will take place next Saturday.