Men's Basketball Comes up Short at Radission Tip-Off; Leak Named to All-Tourney Team

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.-- The North Central Men's Basketball team traveled to Roseville, Minnesota for the 2008 Northwestern College/Radission Tip-Off Tournament on Friday and Saturday. The Rams lost their season opener to host Northwestern on Friday night and then fell in the consolation game on Saturday to Wisconsin-River Falls.

North Central fell behind early but battled back and hung with Northwestern for most of the second half before eventually falling 71-55. After being down by as many as 13 in the first, NCU trimmed the halftime margin to seven. A three pointer by freshman Levi Fickensher (Gothenburg, Neb.) cut the Eagle lead to 5 with 13:21 left in the second half but that would be as close as the Rams would get. Senior Chris Hickox (Mobile, Ala.) led NCU with 15 points and 3 rebounds. Fickensher was the leading rebounder with six boards go with his 11 points in his first college action. Senior Ryan Leak also had a solid performance scoring 11 points, grabbing five boards and dishing out six assists.

On Saturday the Rams matched up with Wisconsin-River Falls in the consolation game. NCU dug themselves a tough 43-14 halftime deficit that was too much to over come. Despite out scoring the Falcons in the second half NCU fell 71-47. Ryan Leak led the Rams with 11 points and five rebounds. Junior Phil Johnson (Minneapolis, Minn.) grabbed six rebounds and recorded four assists.

Ryan Leak was named to the NWC/Radission Tip-Off All Tournament Team for his great performances over the weekend. Leak averaged 11 points, five rebounds and 3.5 assists during tourney action.

The Rams return to action tomorrow for a 7:30pm tip off with Crown College in St. Bonifacius, Minnesota. Crown comes in with a 0-2 record after dropping both ends of a home and home series with Augsburg College.