The Anoka-Ramsey Community College Men's Basketball team won their fourth straight game, completing a sweep of MCAC Northern Division opponents with a 70-69 win over Mesabi Range.
All four wins during the streak have come against teams from the MCAC Northern Division.
Mesabi took the first lead of the game with a three-point shot on their opening possession.
The Norsemen would connect on 7-of-14 shots from beyond the arc in the first half.
Anoka-Ramsey countered and took their first lead at 7-6 four minutes into the period.
Mesabi would retake the lead 10-9 with 14:17 to play and would maintain the lead for much of the half, eventually going ahead 19-13 following another three-point field goal.
The Golden Rams trimmed the deficit to one point on a post move from Joel McFall (freshman, Geelong, Australia). Mesabi scored to push the lead back to three, followed by a layup by Tyler Matsen (freshman, Racine, Wisconsin) to cut it back to one.
A made free throw from Kashif Hayes (freshman, St. Louis Park) would knot the game at 24 with 6:14 to play.
A 4-0 spurt by Mesabi pushed the lead to 28-24 before a Hayes three and a layup by Robert Ben (sophomore, Spring Lake Park) would allow the Golden Rams to take a 29-28 lead.
Mesabi would regain the lead and push it to four points before a buzzer-beating three from the corner by Hayes would settle the half at 39-38 in favor of the Norsemen.
Neither team was able to take control to start the second half until a layup by Brandon Hixson (freshman, Champlin Park) and another three from Hayes gave the Golden Rams a 54-49 lead.
The Golden Rams took their biggest lead of the game, 58-51 following a made free throw by Hixson with 9:20 to play, but back-to-back threes by Mesabi once again cut the deficit to one point at 58-57.
Empty possessions by both teams kept the score at 58-57 until Matsen knocked down his second three-point field goal of the game to push the lead back to four.
Two made free throws by Trenton Pollard (sophomore, Prairie Seeds Academy) with 6:22 to play gave the Golden Rams a six point lead 63-57.
But another 5-0 run by Mesabi cut it back to one 63-62.
Hixson made two free throws, and Hayes made one to re-establish a four point lead 66-62 with 2:46 left.
After trading baskets, Mesabi connected on another three-point field goal to again get within one, 68-67 with 1;18 to play.
Pollard made two free throws with 1:10 left to push the lead to 70-67, followed by a Mesabi layup to get within 70-69 with 49 seconds remaining.
With the shot clock winding down, Anoka-Ramsey committed a turnover with 16 seconds remaining to give Mesabi one last chance.
The Golden Rams had fouls to give and committed two in the front court, but 13 seconds had run off, giving Mesabi only three seconds to get a good look off a sideline inbounds play.
A contested three-point attempt fell wide as the Golden Rams held on for the win.
Anoka-Ramsey committed 25 turnovers, but their second half defense held Mesabi to just 33 percent shooting, including 16.7 percent from the three-point line in the half (3-18).
The Golden Rams shot 55.6 percent overall, 60 percent in the second half.
Hayes led the scoring with a career-high 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 5-of-8 from the three-point line.
Matsen scored a career-high 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting.
Ben pulled in a career-high 13 rebounds to go with eight points, while Hixson also recorded a career-high with ten rebounds.
Anoka-Ramsey improves to 5-4 on the season.
Next up is four straight home games before MCAC Southern Division play begins.
The Golden Rams host Bismarck State College on Friday, December 19 at 8pm, then have a rematch with Vermilion Community College on Saturday, December 20 at 5pm.
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