DAVENPORT, Iowa - The University of St. Francis men's basketball team battled St. Ambrose for 40 minutes in this Wednesday's (Jan. 15) Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) game, but when the final horn sounded the Bees managed to come away with a 72-66 win over the Saints inside SAU's Lee Lohman Arena.
 

The Saints, who fall to 6-12 overall and 4-8 in the CCAC this season with the setback, had to contend with a hot-shooting SAU team which made 57.4 percent (27-47) of its shots in the contest. USF, which connected on 40 percent (24-60) of its attempts from the floor, was led in scoring by guard Cole Micek (SR/Los Angeles, Calif.)'s 14 points.  Forward Mitch Kwasigroch (SR/Manhattan, Ill.), who made all three of his three-pointers, and guard Malik Bailey (SR/Tutwiler, Miss.) were the only other Saints' players to net double-figure points with 11 and 10 points, respectively. 
 

On the other side, SAU's Jake Meeske totaled a game-best 17 points to lead four individuals in double-figure scoring. John Kerr, who netted 14 points in the contest, claimed game-high rebounding honors with 12 boards as the Bees would claim a 32-27 advantage on the glass. St. Ambrose which topped USF 85-78 in overtime on the Saints' home floor earlier (Nov. 19) this season, improved to 12-8 overall and 8-4 in the CCAC.
 

The opening 20 minutes of play featured a one-point SAU lead (8-7) after the first five minutes before the Bees tallied 10 straight points to take an 18-7 advantage with 11:19 left in the first half. Eight straight USF points cut St. Ambrose's lead to three (18-15) at the 9:48 mark and then down to a deuce (22-20) over a little more than a minute later as guard Joey Buggemi (SO/Frankfort, Ill.) sank a three ball. SAU was able to hold the lead for the remainder of the first half although its margin fluctuated from two to eight points.  A trey by Mitch Kwasigroch just under a minute to go before the half made it a five-point (36-31) game at the break.
 

A 60 percent (12-20) field goal percentage was turned in by St. Ambrose in the second half as the Bees were able to hold off USF despite several scoring runs by the Saints, who shot 34.3 percent (12-35) from the field in the half. SAU bumped its lead up to 11 points (53-42) as the 10-minute mark approached after having a three-point cushion (39-36) seven-plus minutes before. A 17-6 USF scoring run with a four-minute span pulled the Saints into a 59-all tie with 5:47 to be played in the game. Another tie score (61 apiece) would follow with under five minutes to go before a pair of Meeske free throws snapped the deadlock to give the Bees the lead for good. Meeske would make two more free throws to give St. Ambrose a seven-point advantage (68-61) with three minutes left, but the Saints were able to bounce back with a 5-1 spurt to get within 69-66 as 1:13 remained. A SAU basket with half a minute to go made it 71-66 as USF was unsuccessful on a trio of long range attempts in the final 21 seconds.
 

The Saints concluded the game shooting 36 percent (9-25) from beyond the three-point line, but did go nine-for-10 at the free throw stripe for 90 percent. St. Ambrose was at 38.9 percent (7-18) in three-pointers and 68.8 percent (11-16) in free throw opportunities.
 

Both teams netted 24 points apiece in the paint while USF was able to claim a 31-17 bench-scoring advantage and outscored the Bees, 11-8, in second-chance points. The Saints committed 11 turnovers in the game to SAU's 17 total, which resulted in 18 points for the visitors.
 

Up Next

The Saints will get set to host the Trinity Christian Trolls this Saturday (Jan. 18) at 3 p.m. (CT) inside the Sullivan Center in CCAC play. USF will go for the sweep in this season's two-game series after defeating TCC 75-57 on the road earlier this season (Nov. 16).