Minneapolis, Minn -- The men's basketball team hosted Crown College Friday evening in an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference game and were defeated by a score of 96-76.

North Central (6-7, 0-4) entered Friday nights game still looking for that first conference victory after losing their first three. That streak was extended to four games as Crown College (St. Bonifacius, Minn.) stayed red hot to hand the Rams their fourth straight UMAC loss. 

The Rams scored the games first four points but soon found themelves playing from behind. A Storm  three pointer at the 17 minute mark gave Crown their first lead of the game and they would never trail again. North Central went into the half trailing by 11, 51-40. 

The second half began with a barage of threes from Crown which pushed the lead to 60-42. North Central was never really able to put a run together and Crown sent the Rams to 0-4 in conference play with a 96-76 defeat.

The biggest difference in the game was the three point and free throw shooting. Crown was able to shoot 48% from downtown (12-25), while North Central shot just under 17% (2-12) and the Storm (51 attempts) nearly doubled up on the Rams (26 attempts) from the charity strike. 

North Central was led by sophomore Luke Chafin (Dayton, Ohio/Troy Christian) who finished with 24 points. Senior Bryce Burkman (Winsted, Minn./Maple Grove) had an efficient night from the floor and finished with 20 points. 

Burkman now sits at 984 career points and will look to surpass the 1000 point mark Saturday afternoon at home as the Rams play host to the  University of Minnesota-Morris (Morris, Minn.). Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.