St. Ambrose built a 19-point lead and needed every bit of it to defeat Ashford 63-60 Monday night in Lee Lohman Arena. The Bees are 16-5 overall and 5-3 in the Midwest Collegiate Conference.

It took 9:28 for SAU to grab a 25-6 lead after back-to-back 3-pointers from Justin Tiner. Ashford (15-8, 6-3 MCC) got back to within 37-32 at the half.

The Bees scored the first four points of the second half to restore a nine-point advantage but seven straight points from the Saints cut the lead to just two with 13:34 left. The game was back-and-forth from there.

With the game tied at 56-56 with 1:14 to play, St. Ambrose did the rest of its scoring from the line. Mike Kennedy and Chris Donnelly each hit a pair to put the Bees in front by four.

After the Saints got back to within two, Kennedy (pictured right) hit two more from the stripe with 10 seconds on the clock. He added another free throw with less than a second to play to account for the final score. A full-court heave at the buzzer was off the mark at the buzzer for Ashford.

SAU shot better than 51 percent from the floor and shot a sizzling 67 percent from the field in the first half. The Bees also knocked down 8-of-17 3-point attempts (47 percent) and 15-of-19 free throw attempts (79 percent).

Kennedy led the Bees with 25 points. He hit 7-of-11 from the floor and 10-of-11 from the line. Tiner scored 12 of his 15 points in the first half and added a game-high nine rebounds. Chris Donnelly chipped in with 10 points.

The Bees will visit William Penn Thursday at 7:30 p.m.