Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Bay College’s Holly Wardynski shoots a layup against Western Tech’s Makenna Gabel (back) and Caitlyn Young (24) Saturday in Escanaba.

ESCANABA — Bay College’s press and endurance proved to be the difference again Saturday as the Norse women’s basketball team took down the Western Tech Cavaliers for the first time in three tries with a 65-49 victory to win the Quality Inn & Suites New Year’s Tournament.

“Our constant pressure for the whole game is I think what wore them down,” Norse coach Rob Robinson said. “We’re used to playing at that frantic pace the whole time, and they’re not. I think they just got a little more tired than we did, and obviously hitting some big shots didn’t hurt.”

After the majority of the game was nip-and-tuck, Bay’s Brooke Dalgord grabbed an offensive rebound off of a missed 3-pointer by Kaitlyn Hardwick and laid it in to put the Norse up 52-48 with 4:40 remaining. Thirty seconds later, Bay’s Holly Wardynski — who was named tournament MVP — was fouled by Western’s Makenna Gabel and made the most of her opportunity to push the Norse lead to 54-48. Marissa Ackerman then sunk two more free throws with 2:47 left to make it 56-49.

“We hit some big free throws down the stretch,” Robinson said. “They fouled Kaitlyn Hardwick on purpose, and Marissa hit those two big ones. So there were some good things at the end there.”

Ackerman came back a minute later with a layup, and shortly after, Hardwick sank two more from the charity stripe to give the Norse a 60-49 advantage. Trish McGuire and Brooke Mannor added a layup and a 3-pointer to finish the game.

“It’s really hard to beat a team three times in a row, and we knew that coming in,” Cavaliers’ coach Brent Thill said. “Plus, playing (them at home) was going to be a different kind of energy then other games that we’ve had. We expected a really tough game. They played really well, and at the end we fell apart a little bit.”

After scoring first, the Cavaliers led just twice more — once in the second quarter and again in the third. The Norse won the rebound battle 32-30 and hit 88% of their free throws compared to the Cavaliers’ 68%.

“After you’ve had a couple turnovers, that’s in the back of your mind, so I think that’s why we missed some of our free throws,” Thill said. “I think it begins with some of the silly turnovers we’re not used to having.”

The Norse were led by McGuire with 18 points and three triples. Hardwick and Wardynski followed with 11 points apiece.

Rylee Gabel led the Cavaliers with 11 points.

“We wanted to run the tournament as a bit of a classic and have the best two teams play the second day,” Robinson said. “I think the best two teams advanced, and I told their coach that I’d like to play them once a week because they’re good games.

“(I want to) thank Quality Inn and all our sponsors for making the tournament happen.”

Gogebic Community College defeated Sault, Ont. College 89-57 in the consolation game.

The Norse travel to St. Catherine University Tuesday to face off again its jayvee team.

Western Tech 7 16 15 11 — 49

Bay College 9 16 14 26 — 65

Western Tech — R. Gabel 11, Freit 8, Schmidtknecht 7, Young 7, Murphey 5, Mau 4, Filla 4, Bever 2, M. Gabel 1. FT: 15-22; F: 18; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: Schmidtknecht 1, Young 1.

Bay College — McGuire 18, Hardwick 11, Wardynski 11, Wickman 7, Trudell 5, Mannor 5, M. Ackerman 4, Dalgord 2, Molina 2. FT: 15-17; F: 20; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: McGuire 3, Hardwick 1, Wardynski 1, Trudell 1, Wickman 1, Mannor 1.