Justin Castro's short jumper with less than 3 seconds to go just rolled off the rim allowing the St. Cloud Tech Cyclones (16-3, 5-3 MCAC) to escape with an 85-84 come from behind victory. The loss drops Anoka-Ramsey (11-10 overall, 4-4 MCAC) into 4th place in the MCAC Southern Division.
St. Cloud Tech took an early lead, but with the score tied at 10-10 Anoka-Ramsey went on a 16-4 run to build a 12-point lead. The teams played even basketball the rest of the way with the Golden Rams holding a 41-32 lead at the half.
Both teams received exceptional bench play in the first half. Tenzing Chime came off the Anoka-Ramsey bench to hit 3-three pointers. His 9 points at the half lead the Golden Ram offensive attack. Eric Racine led St. Cloud Tech with 8 points off the bench.
The second half saw St. Cloud Tech come out on fire as they hit 5 3-pointers in just over the first 4 minutes to tie the game up at 51-51. After a layup by Nashiem Lozier gave the Golden Rams a brief lead, St. Cloud Tech went on an 11-0 run to open up a 9-point lead 62-53.
After trading baskets, Anoka-Ramsey went on a 17-2 run to reclaim the lead. Justin Castro hit 3 3-pointers, and Tenzing Chime chipped in two more to give the Rams a 72-67 lead.
St. Cloud Tech refused to go away as they responded with a 10-2 run of their own. Eric Racine scored 8 points to give St. Cloud the lead 77-74 with just over 5 minutes to go in the contest.
The teams played back-and-forth basketball for the next 3.5 minutes. The last 90 seconds of the game saw 4 lead changes as neither team gave up. A lay up by Jazz Boker gave the Cyclones the lead with 15 seconds to go. Off an inbounds play with 6 seconds left Justin Castro drove down the lane, and his jumper bounced on the rim a couple of times before it rolled off giving the Cyclones the victory.
Castro led the offensive attack for Anoka-Ramsey with 22 points. Tenzing Chime and Steven Colon came off the bench to score 15 and 11 points respectively. Nashiem Lozier scored 10 points for the Rams while also grabbing 6 rebounds, and handing out 6 assists.
Eric Racine and Jazz Boker lead a balanced St. Cloud offensive attack with 16 points each. Paul Coleman scored 15 points off the bench, Taye Carter chipped in 11, and Dillon Haider scored 10.
Anoka-Ramsey returns to the court this coming Wednesday against Minnesota West Community and Technical College. Tip off is set for 7:30 PM at the Performance Gym.
