St. Ambrose missed 11 free throws, 10 of those in the second half, in dropping a 76-74 decision to Olivet Nazarene Tuesday night inside Lee Lohman Arena.

The loss drops the No. 14-ranked Bees to 4-1 overall.

The future Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference foes put on a good show in front of a big crowd.

Olivet Nazarene (4-0) used its size to outscore St. Ambrose 36-22 in the paint. And the Bees turned to their guards who responded with 63 of the team's 74 points.

Neither team led by more than seven points at any point, and SAU clung to a 32-30 lead at the half.

After Tylon Deal scored to tie the game at 52-52 with 8:24 to play, the Tigers went on a 7-0 run to take their largest lead of the game. The Bees had to play catch-up the rest of the way.

SAU was down 69-66 with 1:16 left after Paul Beene hit 1-of-2 from the line. The Bees got a stop and had a chance to get to within one, but Darian White's jumper was off the mark.

ONU hit 7-of-8 free throws to seemingly put the game out of reach at 76-69 with just 17 seconds on the clock.

But after White pulled down an offensive rebound and scored to cut the deficit to five, the Bees forced a turnover and Beene was fouled on a 3-point attempt. He made the first free throw to get the margin down to 76-72 but missed the next two, the last one intentionally, but the ball went out of bounds off the Tigers.

White got inside to score to get the deficit down to 76-74 with three seconds left. Ben Alpen intercepted the inbounds pass but before he could get off a potential game-tying shot, he landed on the baseline giving the ball back to ONU with four tenths of a second left.

Beene and White each finished with 19 points to lead the Bees. They combined for 27 second-half points in the loss. Deal had 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Sam Ainsworth and Nick Frazier each scored nine. Michael Knoll was the only other Bee to score, adding two points.

St. Ambrose will host the Pepsi Challenge Friday and Saturday. SAU will face Grace (Ind.) Friday at 7:30 p.m. before playing Saint Francis (Ind.) Saturday at 3 p.m.