COON RAPIDS — The Rochester Community and Technical College men's basketball team missed out on a chance to leap up in the MCAC South Division standings with a high-scoring 97-90 loss to Anoka-Ramsey Community College on Monday night.
The game was a makeup from a postponed outing on Jan. 18.
"It was a big game as had we won we would have been in a tie for first, instead we drop to fourth," RCTC coach Brian LaPlante said.
The visiting Yellowjackets, ranked No. 14 among NJCAA Division III teams, played a strong first half and had the lead with five minutes to go in the half. A-R then went on a 20-7 run to go up 51-43 at the break.
RCTC cut the gap to five a couple of times in the second half, but could get no closer.
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"We did a very poor job defensively and Anoka scored 97 pointss and shot almost 70% from the field," LaPlante said. "Just a very poor job on our end defensively."
RCTC did excel on offense with six players in double figures, including all five starters. Kameron Givens led the way with 24 points and he added six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Peyton Dunham had 17 points and seven rebounds.
Quest McCrimon, Andre Crockett, Jacob Lotz and Quincy Burland all had 11 points. Lotz led the Yellowjackets with eight rebounds.
The loss drops RCTC to 16-6, 4-3 in the South Division. A-R improves to 10-7, 5-2 in division play.
RCTC will host St. Cloud Technical and Community College at 3 p.m. Saturday in another game that will have a big impact on the division standings.