Rochester, MN:

The top ranked and #1 seeded Anoka-Ramsey men's basketball team found itself in unfamiliar territory on Thursday night; trailing in a basketball game.  Anoka came into their quarterfinal match-up with #8 MassBay not only on a nine game winning streak, but having blown out opponents by an average of 18 points in their last 3 games.

Playing like an underdog with nothing to lose, MassBay took the lead two different times in the 2nd half against the Golden Rams. However, the Anoka bench, led by father-and-son coaching duo Ron and Rory Larson, didn't hit the panic button.   Instead, Anoka's squad rallied twice from 5 point deficits to finally take the lead for good with about 2 minutes to play.  An all-alone fast break dunk with exactly 1 minute to go put the exclamation point on their comeback effort, and the Golden Rams were pleased to take the 98 to 87 victory back into the locker-room.  

The final score did not accurately reflect the tightness of the contest throughout.  Both teams struggled from the floor early on, and it was almost five minutes into the game before both squads cracked into double digits on the scoreboard.  Over the 40 minutes, Anoka's depth proved to be the difference in the two teams, as almonst all Golden Rams appeared in the contest, while MassBay stuck with a much smaller 6-7 player rotation. 

Edvonte Copeland paced Anoka with 27 points and Mamadou Ngom chipped in 17 as well. Ngom also collected 12 rebounds, a key asset on a night where neither team could get shots to fall.  Overall, Anoka shot 40.7% from the field and was actually more accurate from long distance, hitting from the 3-point arc at a 43.6% clip.

Anoka now turns it's sights onto tonight's 7pm semi-final match-up with North Lake, who were 83-77 winners over Davidson County.   For full information and updates from the NJCAA National Tournament in Rochester, Minnesota  please visit this link.

Story courtesy of MCAC Sports.