The Anoka-Ramsey Community College Men's Basketball team outscored M|State Fergus Falls 12-2 over the final five minutes to pull away for a 85-70 win on Wednesday night in MCAC Southern Division play.
The Spartans jumped out to an 8-0 over the Golden Rams in the early stages before Anoka-Ramsey fought back. Consecutive threes from Elijah Linear and James Lloyd pulled the Golden Rams within one, 18-17, and Jackson Odegard would add a three to tie the score at 22 apiece with 8:10 left in the first half.
M|State put together a 7-2 run to lead 29-24 before Anoka-Ramsey went on three-point barrage with made threes on four straight possessions by Chris Morgan, Malik El-Amin, Justin Castro, and Kevin Schramm put the Golden Rams up one.
Consecutive threes from M|State put the Spartans up five with 1:31 left in the period and after a Morgan layup the Spartans would hit again from long-range to go up six, 44-38 with 47 seconds to play before half.
El-Amin though connected on another long-range bomb and the Golden Rams forced a M|State turnover that Schramm converted into another deep contested three at the buzzer to tie the score 44-all at halftime.
Layups from Castro and Morgan gave the Golden Rams a 55-47 lead early in the second half and it looked as though Anoka-Ramsey would pull away. But M|State chipped away and pulled within one 61-60 at the 12 minute mark.
Still leading by one at 64-63 Linear knocked down his second three of the game to push the lead back to four.
M|State scored to pull back within two, but three straight layups from Morgan, Schramm, and Linear extended the Golden Ram advantage back up to eight, 73-65 with 6:28 to play.
A Spartan three got the game back within two possessions before the final decisive Golden Ram run was kick-started by a Schramm layup, a Morgan layup, and a back-breaking three from James Lloyd with three minutes to play.
The Golden Rams shot 54 percent (34-63) overall and hit 15 of 26 threes (57.7 percent).
Anoka-Ramsey held a 38-25 edge in rebounds holding M|State to just three second chance opportunities.
Morgan finished with a career-high 30 points and added seven rebounds and four assists.
Schramm scored 17 points and pulled in 13 rebounds.
Linear scored ten off the bench making 4 of 5 from the field.
Castro filled the stat sheet with nine points, nine assists, and five rebounds.
The Golden Rams improve to 9-7 overall, 3-0 in MCAC. Anoka-Ramsey with host conference rival St. Cloud Tech on Saturday, January 20 at 3:00pm.