The Munising Baptist boys basketball team made it to the second round of the Northern Lights League tournament on Friday. The Bobcats were taking on Big Bay de Noc in a game held at Hannahville, where they saw their time in the tournament end with a 65-59 setback.
“Big Bay had just knocked out Mackinac Island by four, just two games prior. I was hoping to play against a team that was worn out from playing a tight game earlier,” head coach Paul Johns said. “But we dug ourselves too big a hole early to catch up, when they did wear down in the fourth.”
Big Bay surged to a 16-9 lead after the first quarter and also led 35-23 and 54-36 after the other quarter breaks.
“The biggest factor for us is we had cold shooting from the outside for a majority of the game,” Johns said. The Bobcats needed to continue to shoot from the outside, however, because of the presence of the opponent’s rim protector and also to make up for a large deficit.
The Bobcats had another big offensive game from Dylan Swift, who scored 32 points. Ethan Swift had 16 points, and Gabe Heyrman added 10.
Earlier in the day, Munising Baptist defeated Paradise, 58-37. A 9 a.m. tip on a weekday was a bit of an unusual start time for the team.
“The biggest challenge in this game was waking the players up to get their minds in the game, because they hadn’t played a morning game all season,” Johns said. “The game followed a similar pattern as the prior one, with the exception that a lot of our points came on fast breaks, because there was more space in a bigger gym to move, and we were able to jump the passing lanes and convert many layups on the other end.”
Dylan Swift had a monster game, scoring 40 points in the victory. Thirteen of those points came in the first quarter, helping the Bobcats take a 17-13 lead after one. They also led 30-20 at the half and 44-30 after three.
Ethan Swift scored 10 for the Bobcats, and Will Norton added eight.
Munising Baptist also won a league contest on the road at Paradise on Feb. 11 by a score of 7350.
“This was a rematch of a game that went to overtime earlier in the year,” Johns said. “This was the most complete team game we’ve had all year, when you consider both the offense and defensive sides of the ball.”
The Bobcats led just 14-13 after the first quarter, but a huge second frame helped them claim a 40-21 advantage at the half. The second quarter ended in exciting fashion, as Dylan Swift’s 3-pointer at the buzzer gave him his 1,000th career point.
He finished with 35 points. Ethan Swift and Norton both had 12 points, and Heyrman added eight.
Dylan Swift becomes at least the fourth member of the 1,000-point club in program history. He joins his older brother Ryan, Jaron LaFlamme and his head coach, Paul Johns.
“I’ve been lucky enough over the last several years to have at least one natural scorer on each team I’ve coached, and it’s been Dylan over the last couple years,” Johns said. “With this year’s squad dealing with injuries/illness (losing two senior starters for the season before the halfway point of the year), on top of others, Dylan took on more of the load on the offensive end than he would have if the circumstances were a little different.”
Dylan Swift averaged 28.8 points per game this season for the Bobcats.
