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ESCANABA---It was a battle that was just like old times Friday night between the Bay College Norse and the Dakota County Technical College (Minn.) Blue Knights.

The two former Region 13 rivals met at least twice a year during the early years of the Norse program, and seemingly, the Norse would win in Minneapolis and DCTC would return the favor in Escanaba.

Well, this season, the Norse beat DCTC, 79-62, in the Twin Cities. So, would the Norse get a rare sweep? Nope. The Blue Knights, despite severe foul trouble, outslugged the Norse, 100-93, to hand Bay its second loss of the season to go along with 12 wins.

After the game, Norse Coach Matt Johnson was not mincing words.

“We were bad,” Johnson said. “That's just a focus thing. I don't know if we thought that because we beat them last time, we'd beat them this time? I think that's on us as as a staff as much as it is the guys. We didn't have them ready to go."

"I don't know. It was just a bad overall effort. I'll be beating myself up for a while about this one because we are just better than this.”

That's especially true on the defensive side of the ball, where the Norse gave up 100 points, 36 of them from All-American guard Manny Montgomery. And Jeremy Wanguhu had a great game as well, with 21 points. The two also combined for 15 rebounds and seven assists.

“That's no disrespect to Peter (Olafeso, DCTC Coach) and his group,” Johnson said. “Manny is as good as there is, Peter does a great job, and they have some other players that are very, very solid. But you just can't have that kind of an effort and give up 100 points, and expect to win the game.”

And yet, the Norse almost found a way, yet again, to pull one out of the fire. They trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half, but went on a 12-2 run midway through the second half as Joe Ofouri pounded the Blue Knights inside on his way to a career-high 24 points.

He, along with fellow big man Ibrahim Diakite and guard Nic Williams, helped the Norse turn an 80-66 deficit into a 82-78 dogfight.

And had Williams not missed an easy putback on the baseline, it would have been a two-point game with plenty of time on the clock.

DCTC (9-7 overall), played much of the second half with severe foul trouble. The Blue Knights came to Escanaba with only eight players, and four of them had four fouls each down the stretch. Two of them (J.B. Dickerson and Chris Owens) fouled out, but the Blue Knights hung on after the Norse cut it to four again in the final minute.

Offensively, the Norse played well, especially inside. Ofouri was in “beast mode” all night, with 24 points, and he made his free throws, shooting 10-of-12 from the foul line.

As a team, though, the Norse were 28-of-37 (75%) from the foul line. DCTC rarely missed, making 25-of-30 (83.3%).

Kairee Gadson added 22 points for the Norse on 8-of-14 shooting, although he was only 6-of-10 from the line. Williams chipped in 17 points, and he took care of the ball, with one turnover in 36 minutes.

Bay College fell to 12-2 on the season, with both losses coming at home to teams who were in the national tournament last year. They'll play their final non-conference game of the season Monday night against Bryant & Stratton, which has a 10-3 record this season.

“Hopefully we can have a good crowd here to watch that, and hopefully, we put on a better show for you,” Johnson said.

The game time has been switched to 5:30 ET/4:30 CT for Monday's contest. It will be broadcast live on Maverick 106.3 FM and on the radio station's webcast, which is linked at www.baynorse.com.