St. Bonifacius, Minn. – The Polars men's basketball team faced off with the North Central Rams on Saturday and fell by a score of 85-79.
A 14-4 run from Crown to start the game put the Polars out in front early. After a timeout the Rams answered back and cut the lead to just two points with 10:42 to play in the half. Both teams battled back and forth until a late run from the Polars with buckets from
John Grigsby,
Jacob Van Dam, and
Tyler Smith gave the Polars the 37-32 lead at halftime.
The Rams jumped right back out in front with 13:09 to go in the second half 53-52. The score evened up at 69-69 with 7:15 to go. Both teams traded blows late in the game as North Central jumped back out in front 80-79 with 1:17 to play. The Polars eventually fell 85-79.
Tyrus Buckner totaled 20 points in the contest.
Jacob Van Dam totaled 7 points and had 10 rebounds. Van Dam is eighth Polars player in the NCAA-era to total over 1000 career points.
The Polars fall to 11-10 on the season and 4-6 in UMAC play and will next head on the road to face off with Martin Luther on Wednesday, February 12
th at 5:30pm.
