The Anoka-Ramsey Community College Men's Basketball team used another strong defensive effort on the road to defeat Northland Community and Technical College 66-59 on Saturday afternoon.
The Golden Rams jumped out to a 17-1 lead five minutes into the game after a three-pointer from Brandon Hixson, and were poised to run away with the game.
But the offense stalled as Northland used a 12-1 run to trim the deficit to five with just under ten minutes left in the half.
Anoka-Ramsey pushed the lead back to 11 after a Mahad Haji three-pointer but Northland would again respond, this time with a 9-0 run to pull within two.
The Golden Rams used a 5-0 spurt at the end of the half to go into the break with a 36-28 lead.
Northland shot just 25.8 percent in the opening period but held a 10-5 advantage in free throws and had eight offensive rebounds to the Golden Rams' three.
A three-pointer from Edvonte Copeland extended the lead back to 12 early in the second half, 41-29.
Over the next ten minutes Anoka-Ramsey would manage just six points and Northland would trim the deficit to two again, 47-45.
Another Copeland shot from long distance pushed the lead to five, and after a Northland field goal, Tyler Matsen would connect from deep for a 53-47 lead.
Anoka-Ramsey lead by nine with two minutes to play but Northland would cut it to three with 32 seconds remaining.
Mamadou Ngom and Matsen would seal the game with four straight free throws to close out the seven point win.
Anoka-Ramsey held the Pioneers to 29.7 percnet shooting for the game including 4 of 26 (15.4 percent) from the three-point line.
While not a good shooting effort overall, the Golden Rams did hit 8 of 19 threes (42.1 percent).
Five players reached double figures in scoring lead by Copeland's 13 points on a perfect 5 of 5 shooting and 3 of 3 from the three-point line.
Ngom finished with 12 points.
Collin Price and Hixson each scored 11, while Matsen finished with ten points.
The Golden Rams improve to 5-4 on the season with their fourth straight win.
Next up is the ARCC Classic on Friday and Saturday. Anoka-Ramsey will host Bismarck State on Friday at 8pm before facing Vermilion on Saturday at 5pm.