News

By Ryan Schlehuber, MCC Sportswriter

A combination of cold shooting and poor ball handling led to a road loss for the Montcalm Community College Centurions Saturday, Feb. 8. 

The No. 22-ranked Bay College Norse (7-2 MCCAA Northern, 18-5 overall) held onto a 60-50 win, holding off a second-half comeback by MCC. 

It was a revenge game for the Norse, who were upset by the up-and-coming Centurions (4-4 MCCAA Northern, 10-12 overall) in their first meeting, Jan. 11, with MCC winning 76-70. In that game, MCC led for most of the game, staving off a comeback to win.  

“Everyone was pretty involved I would say. We definitely could have hit a few more shots as a team and me in particular,” said MCC freshman guard Taylen Carver (Louisville, Ky.), who finished with a team-high 22 points. 

In Saturday’s game, it was the Norse taking over the first half, establishing a 15-7 lead after a three-point bucket by Tre Sanigar just 10 minutes into the game. The Centurions cut the lead to one, 17-16, with back-to-back buckets from freshman center Josiah DeMeester (Grandville, Mich.), a three-point make from freshman forward Dawson Dunn (Big Rapids, Mich.) and a jump shot by Carver. 

The Norse then went on a 12-0 scoring run to re-establish the lead, 29-16, capped off by a Ryan Sweeney free throw with 2:43 to go in the first half. Bay went into halftime with a 30-20 lead. 

“We have a tendency to get off to some slow starts,” said Centurions Assistant Coach Asher Vissman. “The games we’ve won, we typically get off to a good start. We kept it at 10 points going into halftime, but there is some room for improvement there.” 

In the second half, the Centurions went toe-to-toe with the Norse, each scoring 30 points, however, MCC was unable to erase the 10-point lead from the first half. 

MCC cut Bay’s lead to one, 35-34, after Carver dropped a three-pointer at the 13:14 mark, and then took its first lead since the opening seconds of the game with another three-pointer by Carver, giving MCC a 37-35 lead with 11:06 left. 

The Norse reclaimed the lead a minute later on two free throws from Sanigar and the two teams traded baskets until Bay’s William Kelley nailed a three-point shot to give Bay a 44-39 lead. Bay went on to score six unanswered points to take a 50-39 lead until freshman forward Mason Dunn (Big Rapids, Mich.) knocked down a three-pointer to cut the lead to eight with 5:35 to go in the game. 

A Carver three-pointer, making it 52-45, was the closest MCC could get to Bay before the game ended, outscoring the Centurions 8-5 in the closing minutes. 

Carver finished with a team-high 22 points and collected five rebounds and three assists.  Dawson Dunn finished with nine points and three rebounds while DeMeester had six points and led the team with 12 rebounds.  

Sanigar, who came off the bench for the Norse, finished with a game-high 27 points.  

Vissman believes turnovers killed his team’s chances of getting a road win against a nationally-ranked team. 

“We lost the turnover battle by nine (19-10), and it’s hard to win when they have that many more possessions,” Vissman said. “That needs to be better going forward.” 

The Norse managed to score 22 points off MCC’s turnovers, compared to MCC’s 11 points. 

Bay College had a sizable advantage in the free throw category, as well, shooting 19-for-26, compared to MCC’s 3-for-3, although MCC won the rebound battle, 35-29. 

“If we would’ve taken those free throws away, it would have been a completely different game,” Carver said. “Other than that, I think that we had a solid game and everyone played hard and gave a good effort.” 

Despite the loss, MCC is still in a great position to make the postseason if it can finish no worse than fourth in the division, which is where it is currently. Of the six regular season games left, the Centurions have taken wins against three of the remaining opponents in Alpena, North Central Michigan and Kirtland. 

“The lecture all season has been chasing a championship,” Vissman said. “We will continue to preach having a championship effort in everything we do down the stretch.” 

Carver agreed. 

“The thought process for the remainder of the games is to just come out and step on everyone’s neck and don’t let up,” Carver said.  

One thing motivating the Centurions to win, other than making postseason play, is hosting the first postseason game at home, Carver said. 

“I am going to do everything I can to make sure we secure these wins and make sure myself and all of my teammates are ready to go to war for these last games.” 

UP NEXT: The Centurions will get their first look at Muskegon Community College (6-2 MCCAA Northern, 18-5 overall) when the Jayhawks come to Sidney Wednesday, Feb. 12, which will be Faculty/Staff Night at MCC. Tip-off time is 7:30 p.m. The Jayhawks currently sit in third place in the division, just ahead of MCC.