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SIDNEY, Mich.---The Bay College Norse men's basketball team was buried under a barrage of three-point baskets from the newest team in the Michigan Community College Athletic Conference in Lower Michigan on Saturday, and suffered a stunning loss to the Montcalm Community College Centurions, 76-70.

The Centurions, playing their first-ever conference game and just their 15th game ever overall, took down the two-time defending MCCAA North Conference champion Norse, who had won 27 of their 28 games in league play heading into Saturday.

And after the stunning loss, Norse Coach Matt Johnson was not mincing words on where his nationally-ranked team is at, as its record fell to 11-4 with its fourth single digit loss of the season.

“It's exactly what happens when you're not tough,” Norse Coach Matt Johnson said. “We physically and mentally showed none of it. There are some good things. We had some guys step up and give us some good minutes, guys that haven't had a lot of opportunity. But we're just not tough enough.”

And Johnson was just getting started in his post-game assessment.

“We've got to toughen up, or this is going to continue to happen. And that's everybody, players, coaches, top to bottom. We've got a bullseye on our backs. Conference champs the last two years. We took poor shots, and if you take poor shots, you're going to miss them.”

Montcalm's Taylen Carver scored 46 points, perhaps the most ever against Bay in the program's eight-year history, making 13 of the 23 shots that he attempted.

Carver made 10 of the 14 three-pointers that he threw up, and made all ten of his free throw attempts, much to the delight of the large crowd that cheered loudly in this tiny west Michigan town located about 45 minutes outside of Grand Rapids.

“He showed us that, by far, he was the best player on the floor,” Johnson said. “We have some guys who think they are Division Two or Division One scholarship players."

"Well, I think he showed them what that looks like. Didn't take bad shots. Only took good ones, didn't force it, and he made them at a good clip. That's part of the toughness. Being good enough to take a great shot instead of a good shot or an average shot.”

Mason Dunn added four triples (making all four that he tried), and two other Centurion players made triples as the team connected on 17-of-30 three-point attempts.

The Norse were shorthanded, with big men Joe Ofori (knee) and Mykel Lindsey (illness) missing the game. Sophomore guard Kairee Gadson played 24 minutes despite being sick himself, and he led the Norse with 22 points. Fellow sophomore guard Nic Williams, himself battling a lingering illness, chipped in 19 points while playing 33 minutes.

“I didn't want to play Kairee more than ten minutes, and I don't think we should have had to,” Johnson said. “But we had to. We had to ride Nic in the second half and Kairee in the entire game because they were the only two who were consistently good offensively.

The Norse fell behind early, 21-14, as the Centurions made seven triples for all of their points, with Carver, from Louisville (Ky.) East High School, making four of them.

Bay tried to keep up, with its makeshift line-up getting the game back to even at halftime, tied at 33-33, as Ryan Sweeney scored eleven points, Gadson added nine, and Marquette's Easton Clements chipped in with a basket off the bench, along with a Connor Coduti (Menominee HS) three.

It looked like Bay would take control of the game as the Norse scored eight straight points to start the second half, five of them by Sweeney, to go ahead, 41-33. Bay's biggest lead of the game came a few minutes later, after Josh Williams and Nic Williams capped a 32-15 run that turned a 25-17 deficit into a 49-40 lead.

But as had happened several times this season, the Norse could not sustain that push. The Centurions got back-to-back triples from Carver and Dunn to close the gap,, nine and then Carver capped a 16-5 Montcalm run with yet another three, putting his team ahead, 56-54, and the race was on down the stretch from there.

Gadson's “and-one” basket gave the Norse a 64-62 lead with 4:58 to play, but Carver hit a triple and scored on a running lay-up off a miss that the Norse could not secure the rebound on, and the Centurions led, 67-65.

Coduti came through with the biggest bucket of his collegiate career with a triple from the top of the key, giving Bay a 68-67 lead with 1:45 left on the clock. But Dunn quickly answered with a three of his own, putting Montcalm back up, 70-68, nine seconds later.

Down the stretch, the Norse were unlucky. With Bay down by two, the Centurions missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw. The players said they were not clearly told it was a one-and-one, rather than a two-shot foul. When the free throw was missed, Josh Williams got the rebound, but handed the ball to the official.

That became a jump ball situation, and the arrow happened to point to Montcalm. Carver made two free throws to put his team ahead by four, and Gadson responded with a driving lay-up to bring the Norse to within 72-70 with 45 seconds left to play.

Bay had a chance to tie the game, but Nic Williams missed a lay-up on the baseline, and the Centurions got the loose ball. After a time out, Carver brought the ball up the court with ten seconds to play, and the Norse thought that Williams had a clean steal at the half court line. Unfortunately for Bay, it was called a foul, and Carver ended up making both free throws to essentially put the game away.

Bay clearly lost the three-point battle (17 made triples to six), but also struggled at the free throw line. The Norse made just 12-of-20 from the line, while Montcalm, led by Carver, was 11-of-15. Rebounds and turnovers were essentially even.

Besides Carver's 46 points, the Centurions (7-8 overall, 1-0 MCCAA) had 14 points and eleven rebounds from Mason Dunn.

“We talked about in our scouting report that our goal has to be to run them off of the three-point line,” Johnson said. “We (players) didn't listen to what we (coaches) were saying. We didn't run them off of the three-point line. Credit to their guys. They made a ton of shots. They hit big ones. They hit tough ones. At the end of the day, we weren't tough enough to execute the game plan and we're going to get beat a lot. They made more plays than us, pure and simple.”

Johnson says the Norse, who were ranked 16th in the nation in the last poll that was released back in December, won't likely be ranked when the new one comes out this week.

“Right now, we don't deserve it, and we're not very good,” Johnson said, and then repeated, “We're definitely not tough and until we fix that, this is going to be the result.”

The Norse will try to pick up the pieces Wednesday night in their conference home opener against North Central Michigan College from Petoskey. The Timberwolves will come to Escanaba with a 0-15 record, 0-1 in MCCAA play. Game time is 7:30 and it will be broadcast on FM-106.3 and on-line at www.baynorse.com.