Fighting Bees Rebound To Victory

The St. Ambrose Fighting Bees (11-11, 3-2) once again found themselves in a tight situation in the final minutes during Saturday's contest with the Iowa Wesleyan Tigers (14-9, 3-2). 

A Karl Petersen lay-up with 00:56 left put the Fighting Bees up 76-73, this would prove to be all that the Fighting Bees needed as Iowa Wesleyan could not catch up to a streaking Tom Pavljasevic, who made an open lay-up with 00:18 to go.

When the final horn sounded, the scoreboard showed, Home: 74; Visitor 80.  The Fighting Bees were victorious, back to .500 overall and moved into third place in the conference. 

It was a much needed win for the Fighting Bees as they will take a one week break from conference action.

Despite the Tigers jumping out from the opening tip and taking it in for an uncontested lay-up, the Fighting Bees would go on a 16-2 run to give them a 16-4 lead, before Iowa Wesleyan head coach Alan Magnani called a timeout to calm his team down.

As the half went on, the Fighting Bees were clinging to a 10-point  lead until the Tigers went on a 7-0 run with 5:29 to go in the first half.  After a Fighting Bees timeout, things calmed down and the game was a seesaw contest for the rest of the first half, as the Fighting Bees took a 44-37 lead into halftime. 

The second half was not overly exciting until things were shook up with 9:46 to go in the game, when the Tigers pulled within one of the Fighting Bees.  The Tigers would get up by as many as six and led by two with 3:25 to go, but that would be the last time they would see the lead, as St. Ambrose controlled the final 3 minutes.

Pavljasevic, who started for the first time since Christmas, scored a game high 22 points and dished out seven assists.  Petersen came alive in the second half and finished the game with 14 points, five boards and five blocks.

Brett Jacobs, who has caught fire as of late, scored 18 points on the night.  The other Fighting Bees' player in double figures was Chad Tancil, who added 13.

The Tigers were led by three players in double figures.  Leading those players was Nic Wilson, who had 19 points and five boards on the night.  Adam Stringer added 13 points and former Marycrest player, Jerome Edwards had 11 points and eight boards, before leaving the game with an ankle injury.

The Fighting Bees will start a four game homestand this Wednesday night when they host non-conference foe East-West University.  The tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Lee Lohman Arena.
 

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