  We calculate open heavy-flavor (HF) production in Au+Au collisions at
$\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$=62.4 GeV utilizing a nonperturbative transport approach as
previously applied in nuclear collisions at top RHIC and LHC energies. The
effects of hot QCD matter are treated in a strong-coupling framework, by
implementing heavy-quark diffusion, hadronization and heavy-flavor meson
diffusion within a hydrodynamic background evolution. Since in our approach the
heavy-flavor coupling to the medium is strongest in the pseudo-critical region,
it is of interest to test its consequences at lower collision energies where
the sensitivity to this region should be enhanced relative to the hotter
(early) fireball temperatures reached at top RHIC and LHC energies. We find
that the suppression and flow pattern of the non-photonic electrons from
heavy-flavor decays at 62.4 GeV emerges from an intricate interplay of
thermalization and initial-state effects, in particular a Cronin enhancement
which is known to become more pronounced toward lower collision energies.
