Norway senior Cole Baij (3) drives to the basket against Kingsford’s Jack Kriegl (4) on Tuesday in Norway. (Terry Raiche photo)

NORWAY — All Norway’s Cole Baij heard inside his head was “I’ve got to shoot this! I’ve got to shoot this!”

With his team tied with Kingsford at 57-all and the crowd at Norway High School buzzing with anticipation and excitement, the Knight senior had just received an inbound pass in his backcourt with 3.1 seconds left.

Baij dribbled up the center of the court until he knew he had no time left to dribble again. So he let a shot fly from well past the 3-point line above the top of the key and …

“I threw it up,” Baij said. “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s over the backboard.’ But it went off the top (of the backboard) and went in. I thought there was a chance it might go in, but I didn’t think it was going to.”

But the ball did just as the buzzer sounded, and the Knights had pulled off a heart-stopping 60-57 win over one of the top teams in the U.P. Baij was mobbed by teammates and fans alike as the stunned Flivvers players and coaches lined up for the postgame hand slaps.

Baij’s shot put an end to a back-and-forth affair on the court and a fascinating psychological one in the minds of the players and the coaches.

That plot began to form five days prior when the Knights lost to a previously winless West Iron County team 61-49 in Iron River.

“I thought our boys played with an incredible amount of energy,” Norway coach Jeff Gallino said after his team’s win over Kingsford. “They were intense the last couple of days in practice (after) we had a bad game against West Iron and lost that one.”

All that was not lost on Flivver coach Ben Olsen.

“We saw what happened to them at West Iron County and it was kind of the message all week (that) that can happen to us too, and we can’t take any team lightly.

“But you’ve got to give a ton of credit to (Norway). Hats off to them for having a good game plan and making shots.”

The game plan included utilizing a 3-2 zone defense and playing it straight up, meaning not trapping the corners. It also focused on collapsing on any Kingsford player with the ball in the post areas.

The defense choice was a risky one because it opened 3-point shots and penetration lanes from the corners – shots and driving opportunities the Flivvers usually exploit.

“With the zone, if they’re hitting outside shots, you have to get out of it,” Gallino said. “Unfortunately, they did hit some of them (eight), but we held on there just enough to stay in it.”

Olsen was not unhappy about his offense, stating his team scored only three points under its per game average. In his mind, the trouble came on the defensive end.

“We gave up 60 tonight and we normally give up under 40,” he said. “The plan was to kind of switch everything because there was no true post. We’re normally used to playing teams with a post, so it gave us a little bit of problems in terms of adjusting.

“But again, they made a ton of shots and when shots go in, there’s really no good defense for that.”

The Kingsford defensive plan looked astute at the beginning of the game as the Knights scored just five point points through the first 5½ minutes. By then, the Flivvers carried a five-point edge after two 3-pointers from Gavin Grondin and a layup each by Owen Olkkonen and Gavin Trevillian.

Kingsford (10-3) stayed in front through the second quarter and held a 30-26 lead at the break with Grondin scoring 19 points in the first half.

But the Knights were playing well and had started to open up the Flivver defense with two 3-pointers from Bryce Adams and one by Mason Trudeau.

“We moved the ball well, we got good shots, and my teammates just hit shots,” Baij said.

To do that, the Knights needed to fight off the heavy ball pressure the Flivvers employ.

“I thought our guys kept their composure,” Gallino said of his team, which committed only nine turnovers. “They like to put pressure on you and our guys kept their composure and held on to win the game tonight.”

Hold on they did, though the Flivvers built their lead to 45-34 with 3:37 left in the third. That’s when Adams and A.J. Gallino led a 10-0 surge with five points each to bring the Knights right back into the game.

Norway took its first lead since early in the opening quarter when Adams sank two free throws and a driving bucket to give his team a 48-47 edge heading into the fourth.

Norway scored the first five points of the fourth quarter on a 3-pointer from Adams and a layup by Trudeau off a feed from Anthony Pineda.

Both teams struggled to score much from there, but Kingsford got a lift from Morgan Sleik, who recorded six points, including a tip-in that tied the game at 57-all with 1:12 left in regulation.

With both teams tiring, the score remained the same throughout the overtime session. With 54 seconds left and with possession, the Flivvers began to hold the ball.

With 10.4 left, Olsen called timeout. The play was set up to isolate Grondin and he received the ball on the right wing. As Grondin drove into the middle, the Kingsford leading scorer was whistled for traveling with three seconds left.

All of which set up Baij’s game winner.

Afterward, Olsen spoke of the disappointing defeat.

“From the very beginning we’ve been talking about respecting every opponent,” he began. “And I’m not saying that we didn’t respect Norway. But I think there was a little oversight that happened and hopefully that doesn’t happen, especially since we talked about it on Friday and we talked about it on Monday. About not letting one of these kinds of games creep in on us and ultimately one did.”

From the Norway point of view, the hope is the emotional win can spur the Knights to further success as the regular season winds down.

“This win is going to be awesome for us,” Baij said. “We came off a tough loss last week and this win is really going to help us.”

“I hope it propels us,” Gallino added. “We have a lot of conference games coming up, so I hope it propels us to play with that amount of energy in the coming games.”

SCORING

KINGSFORD – Grondin 9 1-2 23, Olkkonen 4 0-0 10, Trevillian 2 0-0 5, Erickson 1 0-0 2, Sundquist 1 0-0 2, Sleik 4 1-4 9, Buckley 1 1-2 4, Sorenson 1 0-0 2. Totals 23 3-8 57. Three-pointers: 8 (Grondin 4, Olklkonen 2, Trevillian, Buckley. Turnovers: 12.

NORWAY – Baij 4 2-5 11, Gallino 7 0-0 15, Trudeau 5 0-1 11, Adams 8 2-2 23, Pineda 0 0-2 0. Totals: 24 4-10 60. Three-pointers: 8 (Adams 5, Baij, Gallino, Trudeau). Turnovers: 9.