The Riverland Community College men’s basketball team is starting to make a habit out of winning big games with clutch plays down the stretch. The Blue Devils picked up their fifth win by five points or less this season when they pulled off a shocker and upset Anoka-Ramsey, the top-ranked team in NJCAA Division III, by a score of 76-73 in Riverland Gym Wednesday.

The Blue Devils (16-6 overall, 7-2 MCAC South) took a 71-62 lead when Darius Bell hit a free throw with 1:22 left to cap a 7-0 RCC spurt. But the Rams (19-3 overall, 7-2 MCAC South) turned the tables when Edvonte Copeland hit a pair of threes in nine seconds to make it a 71-68 game with 50.1 seconds left.

RCC was able to connect on five of its last six free throws to hold a 76-73 lead with 14 seconds left and AR missed a game-tying three as time expired.

Bell finished with 14 points in the win and he made some key plays down the stretch — including a drive for a hoop to put the Blue Devils up 62-59 with 5:41 left in the game.

“At the beginning of the season a lot of teams doubted us and we’re always under the radar. It’s a big win for our program and people are starting to notice us,” Bell said. “We’ve got a lot of hungry freshmen on the team and everybody’s on the same page. Everybody’s together and we set a goal for ourselves at the beginning of the season that everybody goes hard.”

Jace Klinkner poured in 31 points and grabbed seven rebounds for RCC, Donte Makazu had nine points and eight rebounds and Kyler Paulson gave the team a boost of the bench with seven points.

RCC was able to do a lot of damage off the dribble as it went cold from the outside in the win. That wasn’t the case when the Rams beat RCC 92-77 Jan. 15.

“We work on our perimeter shooting a lot in practice, but it wasn’t dropping a lot for us tonight. Dribble penetration was key tonight,” RCC head coach Derek Hahn said. “I felt like when we played them up there we didn’t attack them as hard and I think that was the difference in the game tonight.”

The Blue Devils are currently riding a four-game winning streak and they are now in solid position to have a chance at making the Regional tournament. With four games remaining on the schedule, Hahn doesn’t want his team looking ahead, but he does want to give his sophomores credit for stepping up in close games this season.

“This group of sophomores have been through a lot and they’ve been our leaders since day one,” Hahn said. “They face adversity square on and they go after it. There were a lot of times tonight when [AR] hit some big shots when we could’ve folded, but they kept going.”

AR 34  39  —  73

RCC 34  42  —  76

RCC scoring: Jace Klinkner, 31; Darius Bell, 14; Donte Makazu, 9; Kyler Paulson, 7; Marcus Wynnn, 4; Sam Kuany, 4; James Landherr, 3; Brandon Harper, 2; Junior Stone, 2; free throws: 71 percent (17-for-24); rebounds: 50; turnovers: 16