St. Bonifacius, MN - The Polars Men's Basketball team faced off with the North Central Rams on Saturday and fell by a score of 84-81.

A close first half started with Crown gaining an early edge before the Rams battled right back to even up the score at 14-14 with 11:42 to play. North Central took their largest lead of half 31-24 with under six minutes to play in the first half. The Polars surged right back out in front after back to back three's from Carter Behne to end the half and gain the 43-38 advantage.

The second half was back and forth with both teams trading buckets until Crown was able to go on a 13-3 run in the middle of the half with 11:40 to go in the game. Once again the Rams stormed right back evening the score at 68-68 with under eight minutes to play. Five lead changes ensued as the Rams ended up on the right side of it out in front by three with 52 seconds to play. Tyrus Buckner was able to draw a foul and went to the free throw line where he converted on both moving the score to 82-81. A late missed free throw with a chance to tie from Crown gave the Rams the ball with only a few seconds remaining and North Central came out on top 84-81.

Buckner totaled 28 points and 10 rebounds in the contest for another double-double. Cade Carroll scored 15 points, Carter Behne scored 12 points, and Jacob Van Dam finished with 10 points. Micah Ladd finished with 8 assists in the contest. As a team Crown shot 50% from the field going 34-68 and 33.3% from three point range going 8-24.

The Polars fall to 12-5 on the season and 5-2 in UMAC play. Crown will next head on the road next Saturday, January 27th at Minnesota Morris at 2:45pm.