CHICAGO – Despite missing big men Joshua Dillingham and Chandler Fuzak due to injury, the Roosevelt men's basketball team played huge on the defensive end to withstand visiting St. Ambrose's size advantage and defeat the Fighting Bees, 56-52, in the Lakers' CCAC opener on Saturday at the Goodman Center.

Jake Ludwig scored a team-high 13 points while Carson Hughes had a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds at the guard spot for the Lakers, who improved to 6-0 on the season.

Adam Alexander also added 10 rebounds as the Lakers needed every bit of board work from the entire team to withstand the injury bug hitting two of its key post players.

While St. Ambrose (5-3, 1-1 CCAC) outrebounded Roosevelt 53-37, it was the Lakers' usual stout D that proved especially suffocating to the guests. The Lakers held SAU to just 28 percent shooting, forcing the Bees into difficult shots even after they corralled 23 offensive caroms.

The Lakers led most of the way, but St. Ambrose cut a late eight-point deficit down to one with a little more than two minutes remaining in regulation.

A big three-point play by Kevin Day made it a two-possession game again, and the Lakers held firm with more defensive stands late to pull away.

"We were really concerned about the rebounding tonight, but our guys did a good job of getting in there as much as they could," Roosevelt head coach Joe Griffin said after the contest. "Seeing Carson grab 10 rebounds is a credit to the team for really trying to pick up the rebounding slack. We were able to win because we really defended, holding them to 28 percent from the field. We were ice cold from three, especially in the second half [0-for-9], but our defense saved the game for us.

"The challenge doesn't get any easier with Olivet coming in, but we'll be ready to try to make it seven in a row."

Roosevelt hosts Olivet Nazarene this Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Goodman Center.