St. Ambrose shot 47 percent from the floor and knocked down 10 3-pointers to defeat Grand View 71-56 Wednesday in a Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament quarterfinal game. SAU, now 23-8 overall, will visit top-seed Iowa Wesleyan in a semifinal Friday at 7 p.m.

The Bees got balanced scoring, led by Bren Gillespie's 17 points. Mike Kennedy scored 16, Justin Tiner added 13 and Brett McGinnis (pictured right) came off the bench to throw in nine.

SAU never trailed and were last tied at 2-2. The Bees built a 10-point lead seven minutes into the contest and grabbed a 36-22 halftime lead on a late Gillespie three-point play.

After shooting 46 percent in the first half, St. Ambrose upped it to 48 percent in the second. SAU also hit 6-of-9 from beyond the arc in the second 20 minutes.

The Bees took their largest lead at 18 twice in the second half before Grand View (18-11) made a brief push. The Vikings got as close as nine with 6:39 to play and again with 5:24 left but the Bees quickly rebuilt a double-digit advantage both times.

Along with the hot shooting, SAU also turned 11 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points in the win.

St. Ambrose and Iowa Wesleyan split two one-point regular-season games. The Bees picked up an 88-87 overtime win in Mount Pleasant on Jan. 22 as SAU rallied from a seven-point deficit in the final 31 seconds of regulation before winning in the extra session. The Tigers returned the favor by winning 79-78 in Lee Lohman Arena on Feb. 19. In that game, IWC built a 21-point lead only to see SAU rally to take a one-point lead in the final minute before winning the game with a free throw with 1.5 seconds left.