Fighting Bees Return to First Place

R.W. Geggs Gymnasium has not been a friendly place for the St. Ambrose Fighting Bees (15-12, 6-3) as it has been over four years since they have came away from La Crosse, Wis. with a victory.  

On Wednesday night, their luck changed.  It changed at the right time as they defeated the Viterbo V-Hawks (14-14, 6-3) by a 70-62 final score, propelling them back into first place in the MCC.

“A game like that should really propel us, especially at this point in the season,” head coach Ray Shovlain said.

Viterbo started the game on a 5-4 run, but the Fighting Bees answered with an 8-3 run to give them a 12-8 lead, a lead that they would not relinquish. 

Viterbo fought back to come within one, but a 4-0 Fighting Bees run, started by a Tom Pavljasevic lay-up, kept the V-Hawks at bay. 

Pavljasevic, who played the game despite battling the flu, scored a contest best 19 points on the night, just two days after receiving MCC Player of the Week honors. 

“I just wanted to go out there and contribute any way I could,” Pavljasevic said.  “I knew that I wouldn’t have as much energy as normal, but I did what I could to help the team win.”

The Fighting Bees were up by as many as ten in the first half after they made a 7-0 run headed by a Chad Tancil three-pointer.  

Tancil finished the night with 17 points on a night where four of the five starters for the Fighting Bees finished in double figures and accounted for 61 of the teams 70 points. 

“This was a tough environment to come into and we came together as a team lately,” captain Joe Barrer said.  “It was a good win to get under our belt.”

The V-Hawks would fight back, using a 14-7 run to end the first half to bring them within three (31-28) as the teams entered the locker rooms.

The Fighting Bees came out running in the second half, starting the half with a 5-0 run, giving the Fighting Bees a 36-30 lead.  

Tancil would add another three-pointer at 15:19 to give the Fighting Bees a nine point (43-34) lead, prompting Viterbo head coach Wayne Wagner to call a timeout. 

“We played well tonight, a solid game,” Petersen said.  “We didn’t let up at all, we played solid defense, solid offense, just a solid game for us all around.”

The Fighting Bees lead grew to as many as 11 when Matt Fitzpatrick made a bucket and a free throw with 3:43 to go in the game.  Fitzpatrick finished with 15 points and three assists on the night.

“Earlier on in the season, teams would break us,” Fitzpatrick said, “but as of late teams have bent us, but we haven’t broke like we did in the past, and I think that is huge this time of the year.”

Karl Petersen added ten points and nine rebounds despite battling foul trouble, something that he, Brett Jacobs and Curtis Clark dealt with all night.

The V-Hawks would get within eight points, but it was too little too late as only 00:30 showed on the clock.

“A real solid win,” Shovlain said, “one of the better wins for our program in the past couple of years.”

Leading the V-Hawks were Justin Kirking and Tim Porterfield.  Kirking finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, while Porterfield added 11 points on the night.

The Fighting Bees will finish their two-game road trip this Saturday when they travel to Des Moines, Iowa, to face off against Grand View, that game will tip-off at 1:00 p.m.  

They will return home to the friendly confines of Lee Lohman Arena next Wednesday to face off against non-conference foe East-West University, that game will tip-off at 7:30 p.m.

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