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IOWA FALLS, Iowa---Don't dunk the ball during warm-ups.

That's been the sermon from Bay College men's basketball coach Matt Johnson since pre-season drills began. It's a technical foul if you do, and the other team gets a free point. A Norse player forgot about that and dunked in warm-ups before Bay's game against Iowa Western Friday night, and it turned out to be costly.
 

The Norse ended up losing the game, 65-64, in an otherwise entertaining game at the MacDonald Classic hosted by Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls.

“It's a point of emphasis this year,” Johnson said. “It's something that we've been warned about. The assigner in our conference warned us. The officials told us they're going to call it. We've talked about it multiple times, and we came out, and we did it. So, it's a bonehead play that one of our guys made. It's something that in a game this close, it absolutely cost us.”

It did, but nobody knew at the start of the game that being down, 1-0, before the opening tip, would be much of a problem. And as the night went on, there were plenty of plays on both ends of the court that determined the outcome of the game.

The Reivers (a river pirate, in case you didn't know) from Council Bluffs, Iowa, came out with a strong start, leading the Norse early, 20-10. But the Norse battled back with a run fueled by Josh Williams off the bench. He took two charges in a row on defense and scored a pair of baskets on offense. And a Nic Williams basket just before halftime gave the 14th-ranked Norse a 27-26 lead heading into the locker room.

In the second half, Ryan Sweeney opened with an “old-fashioned” three-point play to make it 34-30, and then Tre Sanigar followed with a basket-and-one of his own, and the Norse looked to be in business, leading, 37-30.

But the Reivers went on a 15-2 run of their own as the Norse battled severe foul trouble, and all of a sudden, Bay was behind, 47-41. When Sweeney came back into the game, he had an immediate impact, scoring nine of his 14 points.

When Sweeney fouled out with 1:13 to play, and the Norse leading, 63-60, the Reivers again took advantage. Bryson Calamese and Muhamed Edunjobi both scored, and the Norse were behind, 64-63. Bay attacked the basket at the other end, and Sanigar was fouled. He split the free throws, tying the game at 64 in the final seconds.

Iowa Western attacked the other way, missed a shot, but an offensive rebound sent Nate Parras at the free throw line with 1.8 seconds left. He had missed all four of his previous free throws, but managed to get one to fall, giving the Reivers a 65-64 lead.

The Norse had to go the length of the court in those 1.8 seconds. A pass to half court was intercepted, and Iowa Western celebrated. But the man who intercepted that pass fell down and the referees ruled it was a travel. That gave Bay one last chance, with 0.5 seconds left. A desperation heave by Nic Williams missed, and Bay had a difficult loss.

“We battled back and that's a credit to our guys and their desire to be good,” Johnson said. “When we got into foul trouble and went to our bench, the energy dropped off, and you can't do that. You've got to stay locked in.”

And Johnson was brutally honest after the game about his team's inability to “win the big one” against tough teams in the final minute of games.

“When you play good teams, you've got to earn them,” Johnson said. “This Iowa Western team did what they wanted to do more than we did what we wanted to do. We've got to be tough enough mentally and physically to figure out a way to win these tough games. And that's been our Achilles heel the last two years. We've been really good, but can't win those big ones. This was a big one. We fell short again today. We've got to be more mature. We've got to be more disciplined.”

Mykel Lindsey had a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Norse. Sweeney had four assists to go along with his 14 points. Sanigar chipped in 13 points off the bench. Josh Williams and Nic Williams both finished with nine points.

Iowa Western got 18 points from Calamese and Edunjobi added 12 points. Jadon Cool chipped in eight points and eight rebounds, and Daleron Thomas scored eleven points.