St. Ambrose suffered its first conference loss of the season, falling at No. 9 St. Francis (Ill.) 77-68 Wednesday night.

The Bees led the nationally-ranked Saints 26-24 on a pair of Kylie Wroblewski free throws with just over three minutes remaining in the second quarter, and trailed just 31-28 at the half.

But then, despite hitting 8-of-14 field goal attempts, SAU lost ground in the third quarter. St. Francis (6-2, 4-0 CCAC) opened up as large as a 13-point lead in the quarter before St. Ambrose trimmed it to 56-47 entering the fourth. USF hit three of their nine threes in the third.

The Saints extended the lead to 17 points in the opening minutes of the final period. SAU made a push behind two Jamie Martens free throws and five straight points from Wroblewski to cut the deficit to 66-56 midway through the frame. Two minutes later, a 3-pointer from Madi Epperson and a steal and layup from Charlotte Flynn brought the margin down to eight at 69-61.

The Bees would get no closer over the final three minutes in falling to 3-4 overall and 2-1 in CCAC play. Two of SAU's four losses have come to teams ranked in the top 10, and a third came to Clarke, the No. 19 team in NAIA Division I.

Wroblewski scored nine of her team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter. She did most of her damage from the line, connecting on 11-of-14 free throws.

Flynn finished with 12 points and Epperson added 11. Martens and Colleen Grady each scored eight points. Jaynee Prestegaard came off the bench to score seven points and grab a team-leading six rebounds. Abby Lownik scored five.

St. Ambrose will play just its second home game of the season when the Bees host Trinity International in a CCAC contest Saturday. Tip off is scheduled for 1 p.m.