For the third time this season, St. Ambrose played CCAC regular-season champion St. Francis down to the wire. And, for the third time this season, unfortunately, the Bees came up short.

SAU saw its season come to a close with a 65-59 loss Tuesday in a CCAC Tournament quarterfinal game in Joliet, Ill.

Despite making just one of their first 15 3-point attempts, and after falling behind by as many as 12 points midway through the second half, the Bees made things interesting down the stretch.

Trailing 59-50 with six minutes left, St. Ambrose made a push. Ignacio Dacunda, Atem Agot and Will Spriggs each scored over the next two minutes to close the gap to 59-56. After two St. Francis (23-5) free throws, Grant Mason buried a 3-pointer to trim the deficit to 61-59 with three minutes left.

The Fighting Saints allowed SAU to stay close, but the Bees, who shot under 39 percent for the game, would not score again.

USF made just one of its next four shots and missed the front end of two 1-and-1 situations. But St. Ambrose could not capitalize. The Bees missed their final five shots from the floor allowing the Saints to escape with the win. St. Francis made two free throws in the final three seconds to account for the final score.

SAU made some threes late but still finished 5-of-24 from beyond the arc, 20.8 percent. The Bees were also crushed on the glass, getting out-rebounded 46-28. That included allowing the Saints to come away with 13 offensive boards. St. Ambrose was also outscored 13-4 from the line.

The disappointing ending came after a strong start.

The Bees built a nine-point lead midway through the first half. The advantage was 29-23 inside the final 30 seconds of the half, before SAU allowed two late scores to lead just 29-27 at the break. St. Ambrose finished with just six turnovers, only two of those coming in the opening half.

Spriggs and Dacunda led the way with 12 points apiece. Collin Wainscott came off the bench to hit a pair of triples to finish with 10 points.

Agot scored nine, Guillermo Narbona netted six and Austin Born dropped in five. Mason (three) and Kieran Farrell (two) also scored in the loss.

SAU finished the year with a 15-13 record.