Riverland hung around all night, but couldn’t close it out in a 73-68 loss to Northern Iowa Area Community College in a men’s basketball game on the road Tuesday.

The Blue Devils (0-3 overall) had a game-tying 12-footer rim out with 20 seconds left and NIACC closed it out on the line.

“It was a great game for us, even though we didn’t get the win,” RCC head coach Dan Swift said. “It’ll get us ready for the conference season. We played really well and we handled their press.”

RCC won the battle of their boards 46-38 but made just 12 of their 24 free throw attempts.

RCC led 33-32 at the half.

RCC scoring: Derek Hahn, 16; A.J. Kortz, 13; Khirey Floyd, 13; Josh Davis, 11; Brian Voigt, 7; Richard Birch, 4; Taylor Oetken, 2; Jared Matson, 2