Fighting Bees Capture Conference Title

Box Score   2/20/05

DAVENPORT, IA- Picked to finish fifth in the Midwest Classic Conference's preseason poll, St. Ambrose completed an outstanding regular season, as they defeated Mount Mercy 85-73 Saturday.  The win, coupled with William Penn's loss gives SAU an outright conference championship.  This is the fourth consecutive year that the Fighting Bees have gotten at least a share of the regular season conference title.

The two seniors led the way for St. Ambrose (19-12, 11-3), as Nick Ferreira and Ryan Johnson each scored 20 points.  Neither one of them has experienced less than a conference championship in their college career.  Ante Juric came up huge in this game, hitting on all three of his three point attempts, while scoring thirteen points.  Mike Steigerwald also scored thirteen off the bench on five of seven shooting.  Chris Washington also scored in double figures with eleven points, while adding a team high four assists.

Mount Mercy (17-13, 7-7) held the lead for the first eight minutes of the game, but after two free throws by Nick Ferriera, the Fighting Bees never relinquished the lead.  The Mustang's effort was headed by Jonathan Turner and Marquis Scott, who each finished with 16 points.  Collin Reichert came off the bench to score 15, and Butch Wennerstrom had ten.

Thanks to winning the conference title, SAU receives the number one seed in the MCC tournament, which will give them homecourt advantage throughout the tournament.  The first test will come Wednesday at 7:00 as they'll face Franciscan in Lee Lohman Arena.  SAU defeated the Saints in both of their earlier matchups this year.

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