Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos. Also click the AUDIO buttons to hear post-game interviews with Ty Creger and Matt Johnson, and Jahlani Thornton's player spotlight interview.

SAGINAW, Mich.---The Bay College Norse men's basketball team played perhaps its most intense game of the season on Saturday, and found a way to survive against the Delta College Pioneers, 100-90, on the road in University Center near Saginaw.

The Norse fell behind by 14 points in the first half, bounced back to seemingly take control of the game in the second half, but watched a 12-point lead slip back to a three-point lead late in the contest.

It was a very physical game, with the teams combining to shoot 68 free throws, and those were just on the fouls that were actually called. The game took more than two hours with play rarely going more than ten or 15 seconds before another whistle came.

And the Norse had to grind through severe foul trouble for the final ten minutes of the game, with all four of their big men saddled with four fouls.

Through all of that, the Norse managed to score enough points to stay undefeated in Michigan Community College Athletic Association play at 5-0, and in a first place tie with Mid Michigan in the North Division standings.

“They're really good,” Norse Coach Matt Johnson said. “They play with a ton of energy, and they've got two bigs that gave us trouble. They play with an edge, and they're really good at it. They get you out of your comfortable zone. We didn't react to it well early. They shot the ball incredibly well, 48-percent from the floor, and we're the fifth or sixth-best team in the country on opponent field goal percentage.”

Delta played much better than its 4-13 record would indicate. The Pioneers got a monster first half from their aggressive forward, Jermaine Lawrence, as he scored 13 points to help his team take a 34-20 lead over the Norse.

Johnson implored his team to “wake up” multiple times in that first half, and finally, the energy level picked up, the Pioneers cooled off a bit from the floor, and the Norse battled back. Baril Mawo gave the team a huge boost off the bench, and Justin Nelson got free inside for four baskets, including a slam dunk.

Tyrel Creger knocked down a triple just before the first half buzzer to give the Norse their first lead at 46-45, completing a 26-11 run to end the first half.

A second Nelson dunk, fed by Mawo, gave Bay a 54-49 lead, then Mawo knocked down a jumper to make it 59-51. Moments later, Colin Hudson sank a triple to put the Norse ahead, 68-59, and it looked like the Norse would pull away.

But, then, the fouls kept coming. And coming. And coming.

“Every single one of our bigs were in foul trouble tonight,” Johnson said. “We haven't had that this year. But our depth was key tonight because we needed every single one of those fouls. We needed every single one of those guys to kind of get us through every minute that we needed them out there.”

He's not exaggerating. Geneis Kemp, Joc Overstreet, Jaylen Flaniken, Mawo, Nelson, and Hudson all had four fouls. Kemp was the only one to foul out.

“It was hard-fought,” Creger said. “I'm going to be feeling it tomorrow.”

Creger was one who took the worst of a hit from Delta big man Travis Pourciau.

“Oh, he hit me, he hit me good,” Creger said. “It was a pretty good knee-to-knee. I needed a minute to walk it off. They came out way harder than we did. They brought it to us off the jump. It's hard to come out strong on the road. I mean, we were both in the (double) bouns with eleven minutes to go! With everybody in that much foul trouble, for us to pull it out, we had a lot of guys step up.”

There were times in the game where Lamar Grayson carried the team, especially early on when no one else could score. Grayson scored a career-high 30 points, with 15 of them coming in the first half, 15 in the second half. He threw up 20 shots and made ten, and he made eight of his 13 free throw attempts.

In the final minutes, Creger and Mawo were the clutch players. Mawo scored with a drive to the basket with 3:04 left after Delta had cut the Norse lead to 90-87.

Then with the score 94-90, Creger turned the game around. He used a nice hesitation move and beat his man to the basket for a lay-up, and then, on the ensuing Pioneer possession, Creger got the steal at half court. From his back, he threw the ball up to Grayson, who raced to the basket for a one-on-one lay-up, making it 98-90.

“I looked up and I saw his (Grayson's pink) shoes,” Creger said. “So I put it up there and trusted that he would be there to get it.”

Mawo ended the game with the icing-on-the-cake basket for Bay's 100th point.

Mawo had a career-high 16 points off the bench. Creger chipped in 14, eleven of those in the second half.

“Thirty points from Lamar Grayson helps,” Johnson said. “He had a heck of a night tonight. Great effort from all of our guys. I'm proud of them. This was not an easy one. It was not necessarily a fun one. But we pulled it out. That's all that matters. We got one.”

The Norse seem to be on a collision course with division co-leader Mid Michigan for a mid-season showdown next Saturday in Mount Pleasant. But before that, both teams need to take care of business this Wednesday night. Bay will be hosting newcomer Kirtland Community College (1-10 overall, 1-4 MCCAA) out of Grayling, and the MMC Lakers (15-4, 5-0) will host Muskegon Community College (7-12, 1-4).

“This game is a must-win for us,” Johnson said. “We can't look past Kirtland. It;'s got to be one that's really important to us. Then we can set that game up on Saturday to be as big as we all hope it is.”

Wednesday's game starts at 7:30 and will be broadcast on FM-106.3 and on-line at www.radioresultsnetwork.com.