St. Ambrose Advances to Sweet 16

By Ryan Holtmann

Game pictures 

Boxscore

POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – The St. Ambrose Fighting Bees saw their season flash before their eyes on Thursday afternoon.

But the No. 5-seeded Fighting Bees were not ready to bow out of the NAIA National Tournament just yet.

Senior center Karl Petersen deflected away Sterling’s (Kan.) attempts at a game winning shot with 0:02 left, and grabbed the loose ball to run out the clock and secure a 63-62 victory for the Bees.

“We just stayed calm and didn’t panic,” Petersen said. “We stayed relaxed and found a way to win.”

With St. Ambrose trailing 62-61 with :51 remaining in the game, the Bees looked to point guard Matt Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick, who had made only 1-of-9 attempts enter the game’s final minute, sank a 17-footer from just inside the 3-point line to give the Bees the 63-62 lead.

“He had not shot overly great throughout the game, but he’s a gamer,” St. Ambrose head coach Ray Shovlain said. “We thought that if he didn’t get a shot off that he may have gotten fouled and could have gone to the free throw line, which he is a pretty good free throw shooter.

“It was a very good win for us, and to be honest, I thought that it was a pretty good college basketball game.”

The game was a seesaw battle from start to finish. After St. Ambrose jumped out to a 17-8 lead, the Warriors fought right back to take a 23-22 lead with 6:54 to go in the first half.

St. Ambrose (30-5) regained the lead and took a 33-32 into the locker room.

St. Ambrose found themselves in a 49-44 hole with 10:52 to go in the game before they went on a 8-0 run over the next four minutes to regain the lead. The teams battled back and forth the remainder of the game.

St. Ambrose did not have its best outing of the season, as they shot 40.8-percent from the field and 31.6-percent from beyond the arc.

“It’s how quickly and positively we can make adjustments,” Shovlain said. “That’s the great thing about basketball, you have to be ready to go the next day.”

St. Ambrose was led by Petersen’s 26 points and 11 rebounds. Brett Jacobs and Chad Tancil both added 12.

The win advances the Bees to the Sweet 16 of the tournament and they will face St. Vincent (Penn.), who advanced with a 113-96 upset over No. 12-seeded Indiana Tech

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