Fighting Bees move on to Elite 8

Game pictures

Boxscore

POINT LOOKOUT, Mo. – The St. Ambrose Fighting Bees came back from a 12 point first half deficit to win 86-80 over St. Vincent. The thrilling win moves the Bees on to the Elite 8, which will be played on Saturday at 3pm.

The Bees led 18-14 early on following a Ryan Johnson 3-pointer, but would trail for the next 22 minutes of the game. St. Vincent's drilled seven 3-pointers in the first half and caused 12 Bee turnovers and only forced two of their own. The Bees trailed by 12 points with :17 remaining in the first half, but Matt Fitzpatrick knocked down a 3 with :05 left to trim the halftime margin to nine.

Ryan Johnson came out on fire in the second half, as he connected on three 3-pointers in the first 4:20 to cut the deficit to four. The Bees trailed 66-59 with 10:34 remaining, but had one final run left in them. Chad Tancil hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to four and would latertiethe game at 66 with another bucket. The Bees didn't stop their, as Jacobs gave the Bees their first lead since midway through the first half following a bucket assisted by Fitzpatrick. Karl Petersen scored the next four points of the game to give the Bees a 73-68 lead with 5:54 left. The Fitzpatrick and Jacobs combo met up again to extend the lead to seven, capping off a 16-2 run over a 5:12 span.

All-American Tony Washam fouled out for St. Vincent with 4:19 left with the Bees up 75-70 and SAU never looked back. Their lead did get cut to two with :44.2 left, but Johnson knocked down two clutch free throws with :26.9 left to put the Bees up 84-80 and then Matt Fitzpatrick closed out the game with two more free throws for the win. Once again Brett Jacobs played a magnificent game on both ends of the floor. He held Washam to 20 points, which is eight below his average.

Karl Petersen led the Bees with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Fitzpatrick posted 10 points, 10 rebounds and dished out eight assists. Ryan Johnson scored 18 and Jacobs added 15.

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