ESCANABA — The Bay College men passed a major basketball test here Saturday, outlasting Montcalm Community College 60-50 in a Michigan Community College Athletic Association North Conference match-up.

Bay’s women also took care of business in an 80-39 conquest of the Centurions.

Defense prevailed in a relatively low-scoring men’s contest in which both teams hit less than 40 percent of their field goals.

“Montcalm is really good,” Bay coach Matt Johnson said. “They defended well and we didn’t make enough adjustments on offense. Holding a team to 50 points is a great defensive effort, only we need to be better offensively. I think we had chances to break it open, although they were very good on defense.”

Montcalm took its only lead at 37-35 on a 21-foot jump shot from the left wing by freshman guard Taylen Carver with 11 minutes left in the contest.

Six free throws by Tre Sanigar, a freshman from Superior, Wis., however, enabled the Norse to regain the lead at 41-39 with 9:32 remaining.

Sanigar’s fifth and sixth gifters in that stretch were also the start of an 11-0 run with sophomore guard Josh Williams scoring on a layup for a 50-39 cushion at 6:23.

“In the first half, I made some of my shots,” Sanigar said. “Then I missed a couple shots in the second half, but knew if I got to the free throw line I’d be okay. I felt comfortable at the line. This is a big conference win. The first time we played them we were missing four key players (in a 76-70 road loss Jan. 11). Today we were at full strength and took care of business.”

A 20-foot jumper by freshman Mason Dunn shaved Montcalm’s deficit to 50-42.

Sophomore guard Nic Willams scored on a lay-in to put the Norse up by 10 points and a blocked shot resulting in a fast break layup by sophomore guard Ryan Sweeney extended their lead to 54-42 with slightly more than three minutes left to play.

Sweeney then added the exclamation point with a dunk on another fast break for an insurmountable 57-45 with less than two minutes remaining.

“Ryan’s dunk fired us up,” Sanigar added. “That brought the momentum over to us.”

Sanigar finished with 27 points and was 10-of-11 from the line.

The Norse (18-5 overall, 7-2 league), who led 30-20 at halftime, were 17-of-50 from the field and committed 10 turnovers.

Carver scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half for the Centurions (10-11 overall, 4-4 league), who held a 35-29 rebounding advantage, sank 19-of-48 field goals and had 19 miscues.

“I’m really happy with how hard we worked on defense, although Carver went off in the second half,” Johnson said. “We need to find ways to finish games and keep improving. We need to put a full 40 minutes together. When it happens, we’ll have a chance to be really good.”

Sophomore guard Kennedy Sproule recorded a double-double for the Norse women with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman guard Anna Axtell scored 11 points in the game’s first three minutes and finished with 18.

“That was good,” Sproule said. “Anna’s 3s got our energy going. It was nice to see some shots go in early. Defensively, we tried to place ourselves and keep them under 40 points. We’re working together better overall. We’re getting to know how each other plays.”

The Norse (14-9 overall, 7-2 league) led 32-12 after the first quarter following Sproule’s jumper from top of the key and extended their lead to 52-19 on her fast break layup two seconds before halftime.

Sproule then gave Bay a 54-19 advantage with a layup on a pass from freshman guard Lauren Zawada to start the third frame. The Centurions (3-14 overall, 2-6 league) answered with a 10-0 run, trimming their deficit to 54-29 on a pair of free throws by freshman Emma Rewa midway through the third.

Bay then finished with third stanza with a 12-3 run for an insurmountable 66-32 advantage.

“We took a few plays off in the third quarter,” Sproule said. “Then, we started moving around better on defense and everything kind of flowed on offense.”

Axtell also provided the Norse with five boards and three assists.

Zawada added 12 points, two steals and an assist and freshman guard Mckenzie Hoffmeyer had 10 points, five boards, three assists and a steal.

“This is probably the best I’ve shot from outside,” Hoffmeyer said. “I haven’t taken a lot of shots. I think this is little bit of a confidence boost and will encourage me to shoot a little more. Those were farther shots than I’m used to.”

The Norse held a 46-36 rebounding advantage, finished 32-of-78 from the floor and had 12 turnovers.

“We tried to focus defensively and wanted to keep them under 40,” Bay coach James Fassett said. “Anytime you win and achieve a goal, it gives you confidence. It also helps us offensively. It’s hard to play against a zone all the time and when they made their run we had to tone things down a little. Our offense was playing slow which didn’t allow us to take the shots we wanted and gave them a positive.”

Sophomore Makenna Rautio collected 16 points and 10 boards for Montcalm.

The Norse host Alpena Community College Wednesday with the women playing at 5:30 p.m. followed by the men’s game at 7:30.

Men

Montcalm 20 30 — 50

Bay College 30 30 — 60

Montcalm Community College — Carver 22, M. Dunn 5, D. Dunn 9, Mozzi 2, DeMeester 6, Badder 2, Ruggles 2, Daniel 2. FT: 3-3; F: 19; Fouled out: D. Dunn; 3-point field goals: Carver 5, D. Dunn 3, M. Dunn

Bay College — Lindsey 5, Sweeney 4, N. Williams 6, Ofori 5, Kelley 3, Sanigar 27, Coduti 1. Hayes 3, J. Williams 6. FT: 19-26; F: 12; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals: Sanigar 5, Kelley, Hayes

Women

Montcalm 12 7 13 7 — 39

Bay College 32 20 14 14 — 80

Montcalm Community College — Putnam 7, Reed 4, Longoria 2, Rautio 16, Schilling 5, Rewa 5. FT: 10-19; F: 11; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals: Putnam, Rautio, Schilling

Bay College — Hendrickson 4, Kaukola 3, Axtell 18, Sproule 24, Zawada 12, Longs 4, Phillips 3, Hoffmeyer 10, Anders 2. FT: 5-9; F: 16; Fouled out: Zawada; 3-point field goals: Sproule 4, Axtell 3, Hoffmeyer 2, Kaukola, Phillips