The Anoka-Ramsey Community College Women's Basketball team took sole possession of first place in the MCAC Southern Division with a 65-55 win over Rochester Community and Technical College on Saturday afternoon.
The Golden Rams defeated Minnesota West earlier in the week, and are now the lone unbeaten team in the Southern Division.
Rochester jumped out a 7-0 lead just two minutes into the game, but the Golden Rams would respond with nine straight points of their own to take a 9-7 lead. Makayla Paggen connected on two three-pointers during the run and Daron Mainville completed it with a three-point play.
Rochester would go back up 15-9 on a 8-0 run.
A layup from Mainville, free throw from Chaniya Rogers, and consecutive layups from Lexus Hughes and Za'Keea Sa'eed-El would give Anoka-Ramsey a 16-15 lead before a three-pointer at the buzzer gave Rochester a 18-16 lead at the end of the first period.
The Yellowjackets opened the second period with another three-pointer to go ahead 21-16, but seven straight points from the Golden Rams would give them a 23-21 lead with 6:11 left in the half.
The teams would battle back and forth throughout the rest of the period before settling on a 31-30 lead for Rochester at the break.
The Golden Rams would score the first four points of the second half to take a 34-31 lead, and would eventually go ahead 39-33 on a layup by Hughes.
Rochester trimmed the deficit to three points at the end of the period.
Rochester knotted the score at 48 two minutes into the fourth period.
From there the Golden Rams would take control.
A three-pointer from Rashonna Thomas and a layup from Sa'eed-El gave the Golden Rams a 53-45 lead.
Rochester cut the lead to two, 53-51, but two Mainville jumpers around a three from Rogers pushed the lead up to 60-51 with 3:43 left and Anoka-Ramsey would hang on for the win.
The Golden Rams shot 41.5 percent for the game including 8 of 14 (57.1 percent) in the fourth period.
Sa'eed-El recorded her first career triple-double with 15 points, ten rebounds, and ten assists to lead the way.
Mainville finished with 14 points on 6 of 11 from the field.
Hughes scored ten points on 5 of 7 shooting.
The Golden Rams are now 13-5 overall, 3-0 in the MCAC.
Anoka-Ramsey is on the road all next week traveling to Ridgewater College on Wednesday at 6pm, before finishing the week at Western Tech on Saturday at 1pm.