Fighting Bees Return to .500

by: Ryan Holtmann     St. Ambrose University 

1/20/2003     9:22 p.m.

Despite a slip below .500, the St. Ambrose Fighting Bees (10-10, 2-1) used a 87-64 victory over the visiting Faith Baptist Eagles (13-8) to climb back to that mark.

Tom Pavljasevic led the Fighting Bees in scoring with 20 points.  He also came away with 5 rebounds.  Brett Jacobs wasn't far behind with 18 points and grabbed ten rebounds.  He was 3-3 from beyond the arc and 7-10 from the field.

"If guys keep doing what we (the coaching staff) tell them to do, we'll be set for the rest of the season," head coach Ray Shovlain said.

Matt Fitzpatrick was also in double figures on the night, scoring 15 points, while dishing out a game high six assists.  Chad Tancil also finished with six assists while chiming in four points and six rebounds.  

The Fighting Bees got off to a slow start as the Eagles led for the games first few minutes, until a 31-4 Fighting Bees run starting at the 13:35 mark of the first half to give them a 42-18 lead with 3:18 to go in the half.

The Eagles would not go away however in the second half, battling to within 14 with 7:00 to go in the game.  But that would be all that they could muster as the Fighting Bees 8-0 run to put the Eagles away for good.

Leading the Eagles was a hot shooting Josh Dagget, who in the first half shot 6-10 from the field and 3-5 from beyond the arc.  He did cool off a little bit in the second half and finished with 23 points.  He did however commit eight turnovers on the night.  

The only other Eagle in double figures was Reuben Rosekopf, who had 11 points on the night.  The Eagles leading rebounders were Brian Kelly and Louis O'Tool, who both came away with five.  The Eagles were out rebounded by the Fighting Bees 41-29 and the Fighting Bees also held a 16-7 edge on the offensive glass.

"We played pretty well defensively, we cleaned the glass better," Shovlain said, "We just have to keep getting better and better for the conference run."

The Fighting Bees will return to MCC play on Wednesday night, where they will face off against undefeated (in MCC play) Viterbo V-Hawks at 7:30 p.m.  The game is the second game of the men's/women's doubleheader.

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