Minneapolis, MN -- Tonight, North Central University (NCU) Men's Basketball played host to the visiting Grace Christian University (GCU) Tigers out of Missouri. In their last contest, the Rams picked up their first win of the year versus Augustana College. Looking to double down and win back-to-back games, North Central would lead the majority of this one. However, it would take the full 40 minutes to decide a winner as Grace Christian kept things interesting late. The Rams would hang on in the end to win 80-75 to get their second win in a row.
Grace Christian would get on the board first as they connected on a corner three. After just one free throw make for the Rams and a Tigers layup followed by another three-point strike, GCU would lead 8-2. Sophomore guard
Carrington McNeal would get going scoring back-to-back buckets, one coming off a steal and and coast-to-coast finish. NCU would take the 9-8 lead. However, it would not be long before the Tigers drained another three-pointer and went on an 8-0 run to make things 16-9 in the visitors' favor.
Carrington McNeal would once again rally his team with two more buckets to cut the deficit to just 3 with 13:02 left in the first. NCU would string together some defensive stops and eventually tie the game once more at 19-19, this time off a layup by
Jack Courneya. The Rams would finally take the lead off a
Jack Courneya three-point bomb from the skyline. This would spark 8 unanswered points for North Central and grow their lead to 6 with 8:19 to go. NCU would be able to expand that lead to 11 over the next two minutes of play. Just when it appeared North Central was finally going to pull away, GCU went on a 7-0 run to bring things within 4. In the final four minutes of the half, NCU would expand their lead to 9 as they led Grace Christian 47-38 heading into the break.
NCU would open the second half with 6 unanswered to push the lead to 15. Grace would then respond with a 6-0 run of their own to get the deficit back to single digits. With the score 57-45 in North Central's favor, GCU slowly started chipping away as they scored 11 points to just 2 for NCU to bring it to within three with just under 9 minutes to play. The Rams responded with 7 straight points, led by
Nik Feller and
Carmello McNeal. We would see a plethora of fouls in the second half as there would be 14 total trips to the line and NCU would shoot 14-17 (82.35%). With 5:01 to go, North Central would cling to a 73-60 lead. GCu would convert twice from deep to cut the lead to 8 with 2:15 remaining. With 27 seconds to play, things would get rather dicey for the Rams. NCU would foul Grace Christian on the fastbreak, sending a Tiger to the line where he would cash in on both attempts. Poor clock management by the Rams would lead to the Tigers back on the attack as they banged home a three to cut the deficit to just three at 78-75. Knowing he could ill afford to give GCU any more chances, head coach
Jeremy Becker called a timeout to draw up his best inbounds play to beat the full court pressure from Grace Christian. Executing the play to perfection,
Carrington McNeal would receive the inbound pass and find a streaking
Nik Feller who would easily lay it in to increase the lead to 5. GCU could not convert on their last second 3-point try and the Rams would squeak out the 80-75 victory.
Top Performers:
Looking Ahead:
Following the Thanksgiving break, the men will head to Menomonie, WI for a road game against the University of Wisconsin-Stout on Wednesday, November 29th at 7:00 p.m.
All fans are encouraged to tune into the official Rams
Instagram,
Facebook, and
Twitter pages for updates on men's basketball and all things NCU Athletics.
