Riverland men fall short at the buzzer to Anoka-Ramsey

Published 4:00 pm Sunday, February 5, 2012

ANOKA — In a span of about two seconds, the outlook for the Blue Devil men’s basketball season went from promising to desperate as Riverland lost at Anoka-Ramsey 60-59 Saturday.

RCC’s Zach Bunch missed a runner as time expired that would’ve won the game and moved the Blue Devils into a tie with the Rams for the fourth place and the final state tournament spot from the MCAC South.

Instead, RCC (11-10 overall, 2-5 MCAC South) lost the tie-breaker to AR and falls back two games from the postseason with six games remaining in the season.

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“We executed perfectly and Zach did a good job,” RCC head coach Scott Koenigs said. “He head faked a defender and got a nice look, but it just came up a little short. This is a really tough loss and now we’re in trouble.”

RCC, which is now 1-5 in games decided by two points or less, led by seven at the half, but the Rams posted a 12-2 run to take the lead.

“We played really good for 32 minutes,” Koenigs said.

Jordan Osberg had 16 points and eight rebounds for RCC.

RCC 35 25 — 60

AR 28 31 — 59

RCC scoring: Jordan Osberg, 16; Zach Bunch, 15; Denzel Smith, 9; Marcus Ratliff, 7; Andrew Kaiser, 6; Taylor Morgan, 4; Cody Meyer, 2; field goals: 41 percent (22-for-54); three-pointers: 38 percent (5-for-13); free throws: 50 percent (10-for-20)