MT. PLEASANT, Mich.---The Bay College Norse women's basketball team played its best defensive game of the season on Saturday against the sixth-ranked team in the country, but the upset bid fell short as the Mid Michigan College Lakers pulled out a 68-61 win at the Maurey Courts.

The Lakers had scored well over 100 points in all but one of their conference games this season (they had 90 in the other), but this one was a tough-nosed battle that went down to the wire.

“Hard-fought, physical for the most part, which was kind of what we expected,” Norse Coach James Fassett said. “We wanted to give ourselves a chance to win in the end, and we did.”

The big plays down the stretch came from Lakers sophomore Chloe Watson.

After Watson missed her free throw, Paige Ebels got the offensive rebound, and Watson nailed a triple to make it 63-57 with 2:47 a left in the game.

Bay battled back, with Anna Axtell scoring four straight points, and the Norse were within 63-61.

But then came the dagger. Bay played 29 seconds of great defense, and with the shot clock about to expire, Watson hoisted up a triple that banked in off the glass, making it 66-61 with 1:26 left. The Norse never scored again, and they suffered another close loss on the scoreboard.

“Down the stretch, we have to get the rebound that we need to get, we have to get the basket we need to get, we have to get the stop that we need to get,” Fassett said. “Down the stretch, they made those plays and we didn't. And that was the difference in the game.”

Points were at a premium early on, as both teams missed several shots from inside the paint, and the defenses forced turnovers at both ends of the court.

The Lakers led, 6-5, at the first media timeout with 4:40 left on the clock. Kennedy Sproule blocked two shots early and Anna Axtell also swatted one away.

Out of that timeout, Mid Michigan opened up a 15-7 lead, behind the scoring of Paige Ebels, but the Norse scored eleven straight points to end the quarter. McKenzie Hoffmeyer scored inside the paint, then the Norse finished the run with a sweet pass from Anisa Longs back-door to Kyra Anders for the lay-up, and Bay had an 18-15 lead after the first ten minutes of play.

The offenses woke up during the first half of the second quarter, with Rachel Resio, Watson, and Leah Helsel all nailing triples for the Lakers, and the Norse getting triples from Longs and Sproule.

Axtell turned a steal into a lay-up, Kadie Kaukola had a driving lay-up, and Lauren Zawada scored inside, giving Bay a 30-26 lead with four minutes left in the half, prompting the Lakers to use a timeout. The Norse led the Lakers at halftime, 35-32.

Bay took its biggest lead early in the third quarter at 39-34, but the the rest of the quarter was rough for the Norse offense. Bay managed only four more points the rest of the quarter (and just one point in the final 4:38), and the Lakers finished on a 14-4 spurt to take a 48-43 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“They played harder than us, and unfortunately, that's been our MO,” Fassett said. “Third quarters have been a struggle for us. We struggled to score. We struggled to get stops. They took advantage of that. We've just got to figure out how to come out with that energy, out of the locker room, in the second half.”

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Mid Michigan took its biggest lead at 51-43, but the Norse scored seven straight points to close to, out within 51-50 with seven minutes left in the game. And then it was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way.

Hoffmeyer led the Norse with 15 points, eight rebounds, and three assists. Axtell added ten points and seven boards, and Zawada chipped in nine points and six rebounds.

Mid Michigan was led by Watson'a 17 points and nine rebounds, Resio added 14 points, seven rebounds, and three assists. The Lakers made 18-of-21 free throw attempts. Bay was 13-of-20.

The win gives the Lakers (19-2 overall, 7-0 MCCAA) a stranglehold on the North Conference standings. They have a one-game lead over Muskegon Community College, and a two-game cushion over the third-place Norse (12-9 overall, 5-2 MCCAA).

The Lakers own the tiebreaker against both as we reach the halfway mark of the season, although they finish with five of their last seven games on the road.

Bay College is back in action Wednesday night in Petoskey against North Central Michigan College. Game time is 5:30 and it will be broadcast live on Maverick 106.3 FM.