Rough Second Quarter Dooms Norse Women, 63-46

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ESCANABA---The Bay College women's basketball team was outscored 25-4 during an eigt minute stretch of the first half and could not recover, losing to the Kalamazoo Valley Cougars, 63-46, Wednesday night at the Bay College Gym. It was Bay's first game in 17 days.

An Alyssa Creton basket gave the Norse a 15-12 lead late in the first quarter, but Bay would score just four more points over an extended stretch that saw the Cougars shoot the lights out.

Most of those baskets were courtesy of Abby Long, who nailed four triples in the second quarter alone and scored 16 first half points. Long ended up with a game-high 24 points as she added two more three-point baskets in the third quarter, including one at the third quarter buzzer.

Hannah Vallier was tough early on for the Cougars, scoring ten of her twelve points in the first 12 minutes of the game. Cretton, though, answered with seven points of her own, Tianna Taylor contributed an "and-one basket" in the paint, and Mari Humphrey buried a triple.

But that second quarter dry spell hurt the Norse as they fell behind, 39-19.

Bay finished the half on a 6-0 spurt, with Cretton's long jumper from the right wing cutting the deficit to 39-25 going into the locker room. But the Norse could not build on that momentum in the second half, and were never able to gut the deficit below double digits.

Cretton led the Norse with 18 points, making six of her 14 shots from the field and going 6-for-8 from the free throw line. She also had six rebounds. Superior Central graduate Emma Rutter scored only one basket, but she contributed a team-high ten rebounds. Gwinn graduate Tianna Taylor chipped in with 12 points, and she made eight of her ten free throw attempts.

Long led KVCC (4-3) with 24 points and five assists, making six of her 12 three-point attenpts. Hannah Vallier added 14 points, on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, and Brynne Johnson added a double-double with 12 points and ten rebounds.

The Norse made 17-of-23 from the free throw line, while the Cougars sank 11-of-16 from the foul line. Both teams collected 40 rebounds, but the Norse committed 18 turnovers, compated to only nine turnovers for the Cougars.

Bay College slipped to 3-4 on the season.

The Norse will play Sunday afternoon in Illinois against Lake County Community College at 2:00 ET, and then play Monday night against Milwaukee Area Technical College at 6:00 ET. Both games will be broadcast live on FM-106.3 and on-line at www.radioresultsnetwork.com.