Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and to hear post-game comments from Ryan Sweeney, Tre Sanigar and Coach Matt Johnson. Also click the AUDIO button to hear Parker Fahning's player spotlight interview.

ESCANABA---The Bay College Norse men's basketball team avenged an earlier season loss to the newest member of the MCCAA North Conference on Saturday, taking down the Montcalm Community College Centurions, 60-50, in a defensive struggle in Escanaba.
 

The Norse made up for a 76-70 loss to Montcalm back on January 11th, and kept pace with first place Mid Michigan and second place Muskegon, both of which also won their games on Saturday.
 

“I thought we were pretty good defensively across the board,” Norse Coach Matt Johnson said. “But if you look at our shooting percentage, outside of Tre Sanigar, it's terrible. One of four, one of five, two of five, one of three, two of five. That's just not good enough. And our intensity and energy defensively, we just didn't do a good enough job sustaining in. All in all, it's a win, one that we needed. But we've got to wake up and figure out who we're going to be.”
 

Sanigar came off the bench to pick up a Norse offense that struggled all day long against the Centurions. He scored a game-high 27 points, and made six of his eleven shots from the floor, including 5-of-8 from three. Sanigar also sank 10 of his 11 free throw attempts.
 

“We had a rough loss to Mid-Michigan, so our goal was to get some momentum and carry it on to Danville (for the national tournament),” Sanigar said. “All I've got to do is see the first one (three-pointer) go through the net, and I feel pretty confident then. For me, especially, if I can get a steal (he had three of them), leading to a bucket or a free throw, I mean, I like getting out and playing in transition.”
 

In the last meeting, Taylen Carver torched the Norse to the tune of 46 points, a day that won him the national player of the week award. This time, the Norse held Carver down to just four points in the first half, and Bay went to the locker room with a 30-20 lead, with 16 of those 30 points coming from Sanigar.
 

But in the second half, Carver got going, and the Norse defense sprung a leak several times. Carver found himself wide open from behind the arch multiple times, and he sank five of them in the second half. He keyed a 17-5 run that gave Montcalm a 37-35 lead midway through the second half.
 

“He's good, obviously,” Johnson said. “We proved that we could do it in the first half. But we just aren't locked in enough to do it consistently. It can't be 20 minutes. That's not going to beat the teams that we want to be playing with at the end of the year.”
 

Trailing 37-35, the Norse responded with a 15-2 run of their own, with Sanigar getting to the line three times and Will Kelley coming off the bench to nail a clutch triple after a Mykel Lindsey steal. That made it a 54-49 Norse lead.
 

Then Ryan Sweeney made two big plays at the right time. Sweeney blocked a Mason Dunn three-point attempt and went the other way for a lay-up, through contact, to put the Norse up by 12. And another highlight: Sweeney got a steal in the front court and raced the other way for a slam dunk. A Sanigar triple was the dagger, and the Norse survived.
 

“Ryan's play, the dunk, was obviously a great way to cap it off, but the play itself, the block, sprint and go get it, push ahead, and finish with somebody there through some body contact, that's just a great 'effort play',” Johnson said. “That's something we need more of. We don't make enough of those plays.”
 

“I knew was going to shoot it because he just hit one,” Sweeney said. “It was just good timing. It's been a while since I've had a dunk. I like to dunk the ball. Thank you to Nic (Williams) for throwing it up to me, and I had a bit of a lead on that little dude, the quick dude, so I thought I could get up a little higher than he could, so I dunked it through.”
 

The Norse starting five shot a combined 7-for-29 from the floor, and were outscored by the Montcalm starters, 48-20. But Sanigar was the difference-maker off the bench, with his 27 points fueling a 40-6 Norse advantage among bench players.
 

“Tre was great,” Johnson said. “You can't ask for a better offensive day than that. He's a guy that can obviously get it done. He's a scorer. He was a scorer in high school, and has had games for us where he shot it incredibly well. We needed every one of them, that's for darn sure.”

Montcalm fell to 10-12 overall, 4-4 in the MCCAA. Carver led the Centurions in scoring with 22 points. Nobody else scored in double figures.
 

Bay College, ranked 22nd in the latest NJCAA national poll, improved to 18-5 on the season, and 7-2 in MCCAA play. Sanigar was the only Bay player to reach double figures in scoring. In fact, nobody else had more than six points.
 

The Norse host the Alpena Lumberjacks (2-16, 1-8) on Wednesday. Game time is 7:30 and it will be broadcast on FM-106.3 and at www.baynorse.com.