The Anoka-Ramsey Community College Men's Basketball team returned from winter break and fell in their final two non-conference games this past weekend.
On Friday evening the Golden Rams faced Dakota County Tech and ultimately lost 74-72 after a furious late-game comeback.
Trailing by 11, 70-59, with 8:31 left in the game, the Golden Rams held DCTC to just four points the rest of the way but couldn't quite complete the comeback.
James Lloyd scored five straight points to trim the deficit to 70-64.
After a DCTC field goal and free throw extended the lead to 73-64, Malik El-Amin connected on a three followed by a Kevin Schramm field goal to get within 73-69 with 3:48 to play.
El-Amin would knock down another three to pull within one point, 73-72 with 2:26 left but the Golden Rams would miss their final two shots while also commiting a turnover and DCTC held on for the win.
Anoka-Ramsey shot just 39.1 percent and made 10 of 29 three-point attempts (34.5 percent).
Four players notched double figures scoring led by El-Amin with 16 points, followed by Chris Morgan (15), Lloyd (13), and Schramm (11).
On Saturday afternoon the Golden Rams ran into a hot-shooting North Dakota State College of Science squad and dropped the contest 96-81.
Anoka-Ramsey started quickly taking a 16-7 lead on a Lloyd three-pointer with 15:46 left in the first half, but NDSCS countered with an 11-0 run to take a 18-16 lead.
The Wildcats pushed the lead to four points, 23-19 before a 6-0 Golden Ram spurt punctuated by a Morgan three put Anoka-Ramsey back on top 25-23.
NDSCS used a 10-1 run to pull ahead 33-26 with 6:48 left in the period and extended the lead to 12 points, 40-28 with two minutes to play.
Justin Castro connected from long range to pull within nine, before back-to-back threes from Jackson Odegard trimmed the deficit to three points, but a three from NDSCS put the Wildcats up 43-37 at the break.
NDSCS quickly opened another 12 point lead early in the second half and steadily increased the lead to as many as 26, 94-68.
Anoka-Ramsey outscored NDSCS 13-2 the rest of the way but it was too little too late as the Golden Rams ran out of time.
NDSCS shot 50.7 percent for the game and made 15 of 29 three-point attempts.
Anoka-Ramsey made 17 of 37 threes (45.9 percent) but just 41.8 percent overall from the field.
Odegard led the Golden Rams with 20 points making 6 of 7 three point attempts.
Schramm finished with 17 points and nine rebounds.
Lloyd scored 13 points and Morgan finished with 11.
The Golden Rams finish their non-conference schedule 6-7 and will travel to Western Tech on Wednesday, January 10 to start MCAC Southern Division play.