Playing at home for the first time this season, St. Ambrose opened CCAC play with a 76-63 win over Holy Cross Saturday afternoon.

The Bees rode a sizzling second half to the victory. After shooting just 40 percent from the floor in forging a 27-27 halftime tie, SAU shot better than 64 percent in scoring 49 second-half points.

Holy Cross (3-2, 0-1 CCAC) jumped in front 34-31 in the opening minutes of the second half. Then St. Ambrose took over.

Ignacio Dacunda sparked a 10-0 run with a layup. Ty Slager scored the next four before Jake Friel ended the run with back-to-back layups for a 41-34 lead.

Will Spriggs scored the Bees' next six points before Elgin Bowen Jr. got hot with 10 straight SAU points, the last six coming on consecutive 3-pointers, that upped the lead to 57-43. Bowen buried another three later that pushed the lead to 66-45 with just over six minutes left. The Saints got no closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

Spriggs led St. Ambrose with 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Bowen Jr. scored 16 and Atem Agot posted a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double.

Friel scored nine points to go along with five assists. Dacunda scored eight and Guillermo Narbona had five. Slager (four) and Ryan Kenney (two) had the other Bee points.

The big second half helped SAU shoot nearly 52 percent for the game. The Bees also forced twice as many turnovers (16) as they committed (eight), and they turned those turnovers into 25 points.

Behind Spriggs, the St. Ambrose reserves outscored the Holy Cross bench 24-4.

SAU (4-2, 1-0 CCAC) will host St. Francis (Ill.) Wednesday.