Rochester, Mn

The men's basketball season ramps up over the second full weekend in November, with several Minnesota College Athletic Conference teams hitting the court for some early season action on November 11-12. Nine men's teams in the MCAC will play tonight and/or tomorrow against a variety of two-year, four-year and alumni opponents. 

Additionally, four Southern Division  programs took to the court last weekend in season opening tournaments, yielding the first MCAC Player-of-the-Week in the Southern Division.

Sophomore Kevin Schramm of Anoka-Ramsey Community College took home Player-of-the-Week honors for his performance in a pair of games in North Dakota to open the 2017-18 Golden Ram season.   Schramm had 32 points and six rebounds against Lake Region State College, while picking up a steal and four assists. Schramm excelled from the foul line, going 9-11 and was 9-15 from the field.  He hit five three pointer against LRSC.  Against the JV team of the University of Jamestown, Schramm picked up three steals, two rebounds and was a perfect 2-2 from the foul line.  

In terms of team results, Southern Division action over the week included RCTC downing Milwaukee Area Technical College 92-90 on November 4th, while M State dropped a 68-67 decision to the Mayville State JV squad on the same evening.  Anoka-Ramsey Community College earned a split in their opening weekend, losing 82-71 to Lake Region State College on November 4th but rebounding to win 95-69 over the University of Jamestown JV team on November 5th.  Western Technical College dropped a mid-week contest to Milwaukee Area Technical College, 102-69 on the road on November 8th.   

The lone Northern Division team to compete over the past week was Northland Community & Technical College, who dropped Mayville State JV, 84-66.  Brandon Murat led the Pioneers with 16 points, while Cole Piatko and Chedonio Martin each had 14 on the night.  JuWan Evans had 8 rebounds to lead the NCTC.

Several MCAC squads will play the evening of November 10th, including St. Cloud Technical & Community College and Anoka-Ramsey, who will take on Gogebic Community College and Madison College respectively, in the ARCC Classic.   The two teams will swap opponents on Saturday, with ARCC playing GCC while SCTCC will face Madison College. 

Also in the Southern Division, Western Technical College will host Bryant & Stratton College in La Crosse at 3pm. Minnesota West will scrimmage the JV teams of both Dordt  and Northwestern over the weekend, as will Riverland Community College.  Both M State and RCTC are off this weekend. 

In the Northern Division, Mesabi Range will tip off against their alumni at 3pm on Saturday and Northland CTC will be at the Holiday Inn Express Classic over the weekend, where they will face Dakota College-Bottineau and Lake Region State in Devils Lake, North Dakota.  Vermilion will also face their Alumni on Saturday, while Central Lakes hosts Leech Lake Tribal College on Saturday. 

MCAC coaches, fans and families can access the Conference statistics via the 'Stats Leaders' page on www.mcacsports.org or by clicking here.  New this year, the 'Stats Leaders' page sorts all MCAC athletes in the same statistical categories as designated by the NJCAA.  Be sure to bookmark the links below as the season gets underway for 2017-18. 

MCAC Basketball schedules can be found at: http://www.mcacsports.org/landing/index

The Minnesota College Athletic Conference website main page is: http://www.mcacsports.org/landing/index

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This release sponsored in part by Gopher Sport. 

Gopher Sport, based in Owatonna, is an industry leader in Physical Education, sports and fitness equipment.  Gopher Sport is dedicated to providing programs and departments with the products to improve fitness, develop skills, create fun and reach a high standard of learning and living. Gopher Sport has diligently served teachers, coaches and athletic directors around the world for over 65 years.