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With the regular season winding down and teams jostling for position within the conference in hopes of securing a spot in the postseason, every game down the stretch means something. 

With Montcalm Community College Centurions women’s basketball’s 96-54 loss at home to the Bay College Norse, Saturday, Feb. 7, the team now sits in the fifth and final spot for the MCCAA playoff tournament, with Kirtland Community College only a game behind in the standings. 

With five games remaining in the regular season, each win and loss impacts the future. Centurions head coach Scott Pedigo said despite the recent loss, he has confidence his team can push through the needed wins. 

“We feel we can win our next five,” Pedigo said. “We’ve beaten four of the next five we face already, so we need to focus on that. Our goal is to keep the place we’re in now in the conference.” 

The Norse (8-1 MCCAA Northern, 19-4 overall) have been one of the conference’s best teams all season and it showed at Saturday’s game, with its up-tempo offense and deep bench. Bay outscored the Centurions in bench points by a 26-6 margin and had an 11-0 scoring advantage in second-chance points. It also forced 29 MCC turnovers to its 10, turning the Centurions’ turnovers into 30 points the other way.  

“They shot well on us last time. It came down to the fact that we ran out of gas,” Pedigo said. “They have a lot more depth than we have. They were able to keep constant pressure on us. 

“I feel Bay is the best team man-to-man-wise,” Pedigo added. “They did a great job of keeping pressure up. In transition, we didn’t have the speed to get back up with them. That was tough because we sent two back on every shot no matter what because we didn’t want to get beat down the floor. They were risking it knowing they could recover. Once we got tired, there were plays we just couldn’t run.” 

Self-inflicted turnovers added to the cause, as well, Pedigo said. 

“We talked about playing better than we did (at Bay) and talked about having to set up better passes,” he said. “Self-inflicted turnovers were a big thing. We threw passes we shouldn’t have. I felt like we went into panic mode.” 

The Centurions (4-5 MCCAA Northern, 7-15 overall) paced Bay’s offense in the first quarter, with the score at 23-20 in favor of the Norse. However, Bay’s offense kicked into another gear in the second quarter, as the Norse outscored the Centurions, 31-13.  

After MCC had three tries to score a bucket with just over five minutes to go in the second quarter, Bay finally rebounded and Jillian Fraser buried a 3-pointer at the other end to make it 35-26. The Norse then got a steal, which Bay guard Lauren Zawada easily laid in a shot to establish the Norse’s biggest lead of that game at that point, 37-26. 

Bay outscored MCC 17-7 the rest of the way to halftime. 

The Norse did not let up in the third quarter, outscoring the Centurions 26-13 and headed into the fourth quarter with a solid 80-46 lead. Bay would win the fourth-quarter scoring battle, as well, scoring 16 to MCC’s eight. 

Despite Bay’s depth and potent offense, Pedigo said it did not help the Centurions’ matters with its struggle to hit shots themselves, as MCC shot 38.3% (23-of-60) from the field and were only 4-of-21 at the 3-point line. 

“We had a lot of opportunities but missed some layups and other shots we should’ve had,” Pedigo said. “It just came down to pressure. We had a good game plan. We felt early on we had a shot to win this game, but it got taken away with their pressure and our poor shooting.” 

Sophomore Emily Putnam (Sheridan, Mich.) finished with a team-high 15 points for the Centurions, while freshman Karlie Bacon (Stanton, Mich.) had nine points and freshman Baylor Syrjala (Lakeview, Mich.) had eight points, eight assists and nine rebounds for MCC. 

Emma Rewa (Greenville, Mich.) finished with nine points and six rebounds for the Centurions. 

Freshman Kendall Stout (Stanton, Mich.), who is currently second in the league in 3-point shooting and scored a career-high 29 points in MCC’s Feb. 4 loss to Mid Michigan, was held up against the Norse, mostly due to early foul trouble, Pedigo said. She finished with seven points, shooting 1-for-5 from the 3-point line. 

UP NEXT: The Centurions will travel to Muskegon Wednesday, Feb. 11, to take on the Muskegon Community College Jayhawks (5-4 MCCAA Northern, 9-10 overall). The two teams battled closely in their first matchup Jan. 26, with the Jayhawks winning, 63-56. Game time is 5:30 p.m.