Fighting Bees
Lose On Questionable Call
It was a night where the St. Ambrose
Fighting Bees (10-11, 2-2) could not buy a break. A questionable travel
call on Matt Fitzpatrick with 37.7 seconds remaining, capped off the night.
The basket would have tied the game and
gave the ball to Viterbo with around 35 seconds left, giving them the last
shot and a chance to win. That was not the case. After Viterbo
brought the ball up the court, the Fighting Bees coaches realized that
there was not a big enough difference in the shot clock and game clock to
just try and get a defensive stop and bring it down and try to
score. So Fitzpatrick fouled Viterbo's Mark Kumlien with 00:25 to
go.
Kumlien made both and put the V-Hawks up
66-62. The Fighting Bees came storming down the court and
Fitzpatrick missed a jumper, but Karl Petersen was there to get the
rebound. He missed the shot, but got his own rebound and made that
one with 00:12 showing on the clock.
The Fighting Bees took a timeout and got
their press set up in hopes of a turnover. They could not force the
turnover, but fouled as soon as the ball was inbounded. Fitzpatrick
committed his fourth foul on Kumlien.
The V-Hawks were still in the
one-and-one bonus and Kumlien missed the front end and Tom Pavljasevic
came away with the rebound with 00:12 left, giving the Fighting Bees a
chance to tie or win with a three pointer.
Pavljasevic passed to Brett Jacobs, who
found Chad Tancil in the corner who saw Pavljasevic posting up on the
block. As the pass came into Pavljasevic, he was bumped slightly and
knocked off balance, as he fell to the floor with time expiring.
The V-Hawks (11-11, 3-0) remained
unbeaten in the MCC and left Lee Lohman Arena with a 66-64 victory.
Tasks will not get any easier for the Fighting Bees as they will now
travel to second place Iowa Wesleyan, a place that the Fighting Bees have
not won at since January 12, 2000.
Leading the Fighting Bees in scoring
were two familiar faces, Fitzpatrick and Petersen. Fitzpatrick
finished with 12 points and four assists. Petersen also came away
with 12 points but had SAU career highs in offensive and total rebounds as
he grabbed seven offensive boards and 14 total rebounds.
The Fighting Bees put themselves in a
hole to start the game as they allowed Viterbo to score the games first
eight points. They would crawl back to take a 14-12 lead with 14:00
to go in the first half. But Viterbo would fight back to gain a
38-34 edge at halftime.
Viterbo came out again in the second
half ready to go and got up by as many as nine before the Fighting
Bees made another run. A 10-2 run with 4:54 brought the Fighting
Bees within one.
They would gain the lead with 3:36 to go
on a Tancil jumper, but that wouldn't last long as it was answered by
VIterbo's Tim Porterfield. This setting up the final plays of the
game.
Four players scored in double figures
for the V-Hawks. Leading the way was Porterfield with 15 points and
six rebounds. Kumlien was not far behind with 12 points. Vince
Ruger added 11 points and Corey Harris added ten points and six assists.
Justin Kirking led the V-Hawks in
rebounds with eight.
The Fighting Bees will hit the road for
the first time in three contests as they will travel to Mt. Pleasant,
Iowa, to face off against the Iowa Wesleyan Tigers. The game will
follow the women's 1:00 contest at 3:00 p.m. The men will then
return home to face non-conference foe East-West at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday
night at Lee Lohman Arena.
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