ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn.-- One night after a disappointing performance the Rams bounced back to grab a big road win. Saturday night the Rams took one from Crown College by holding their usually effective three point shooting attack under wraps and Jordan Harrell returned to form after missing time with an injury to lead a balanced scoring attack in an 82-75 Rams victory.

Friday night North Central allowed The University of Minnesota-Morris (Morris, Minn.) to shoot over .500 from the floor and, on Saturday, faced Crown College (St. Bonifacius, Minn.) who came in as the second best three point shooting team in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference. But unlike against Morris one night ago, the Rams found a way to hold the Storm to less than half their usual shooting mark from behind the three point line.

In a game that was close the entire 40 minutes North Central hung in against an agressive Crown offiense and kept things flowing through all of their own offensive weapons. NCU trailed briefly, very early in the first half and though the Storm never allowed much room for comfort North Central covered every run the home team made and never trailed after the first two minutes of the game. North Central led by as many as nine in the first half and after Crown tied it up at 33-33 with 3:44 left in the opening period, NCU took a 42-35 lead to the locker room.

The second half mirrored the first 20 minutes as the Rams continued to be effective but could not pull away. At several points the Rams pushed the lead to a three possession difference only to have Crown rally to keep it close. After Jordan Harrell (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) made a lay-up at the 14:19 mark that made it 56-48 the Storm fought back to tie the game up at 60-60 less than three minutes later. NCU would get a bucket from senior Bryce Burkman (Winsted, Minn./Maple Grove) on their next possession only to see Crown again tie the game at 62-62 at the midway point of the half.

Five minutes later NCU grabbed a 75-64 lead on a pair of free throws from sophomore Luke Chafin (Dayton, Ohio/Troy Christian) with 5:01 left. However, Crown made another surge to get the difference back to just 75-70 and had the ball with a chance to get closer with 1:08 remaining but the Rams defense forced a tough shot and Bryce Burkman grabbed a critical rebound. In the following Rams possession junior Josh High (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo) was fouled and calmly hit a pair of free throws that gave NCU a 77-70 lead and basically sealed the Rams win with 49 seconds left.

Josh High and Bryce Burkman would go a combined 7-8 from the free throw line over the final minute and North Central would not allow any final miracles in a game they controled throughout. NCU held the Storm to .352 shooting on the night, down from their usual .420 clip. But the biggest difference for the Rams was keeping Crown's marksmanship to just 6-23 (.261) from downtown in a year where they fire .365 from deep.

NCU was led by junior Jordan Harrell who returned to action after missing all of January with an injury. Harrell poured in a game high 20 points on 10-13 shooting and snagged 6 rebounds. Luke Chafin added 16 points and equaled a game high with 9 rebounds. 

Josh High scored 13 points while Bryce Burkman added 12 points and 7 rebounds. As a team the Rams outrebounded the Storm by a 49-33 differential and fired .508 from the floor.

North Central wrapped up its regular season road slate with Saturday's win. They will finish up the regular season with four home games over the next two weekends. Next Friday they will host Martin Luther College (New Ulm, Minn.) for a Valentines Day conference tilt at 7:30 p.m. Saturday NCU will host Bethany Lutheran College (Mankato, Minn.) at 5 p.m.