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PASSING THE TEST: Bay Wins Battle Of Unbeatens
 Click the thumbnails to see photos and video highlights, and hear post-game comments from Colin Hudson, Justin Nelson, and Coach Matt Johnson. Also click to hear Baril Mawo's player spotlight interview.
 It was a match-up against two teams tied atop the standings with 6-0 records, and the Norse led nearly from wire-to-wire to finish the first half of their first season in the conference all alone in first place. Perhaps outside of some regional seeding wins against Dakota County (Minn.) Technical College in recent years, this one is the most satisfying.
“Man, were they good today,” Norse Coach Matt Johnson said of his players. “They were really, really good. That's the best basketball team that we've beat, and that's probably the best 40 minutes of basketball we've played. We were locked in on defense, and we moved the ball offensively."
Just 60 hours before, Johnson had called out his players for an uninspired win over last-place Kirtland Community College, saying that his team would “get out butts kicked” if the guys didn't play better. And, indeed, it was Bay that brought it, and at times, did some of the butt-kicking despite MMC make multiple runs to put the result in doubt.
 “We knew it was going to be a battle,” Escanaba High School graduate Colin Hudson said. “This was our biggest game. We were both 6-0 coming into this, and this was the biggest team we've played so far. We just had to come in and play our best game, and that's what we did. We had to rebound the ball hard. But we hit shots. I mean, that was the big thing. We executed on the offensive end, and we played good defense.”
Hudson had a career-high 22 points, making eight of his 12 shots from the floor. He also grabbed six rebounds.
Fellow Yooper, West Iron County graduate Justin Nelson, was also all-smiles. He made four of his five shots from the floor, made three of five free throws, for eleven points, and he collected six rebounds. Nelson did that in only 15 minutes of playing time due to foul trouble.
“It feels great,” Nelson said. “We worked the whole season to get to this point, and to prove that we're the #1 best team. I tried not to let (three fouls) put me out of it mentally. You just keep your head up, move past it, and learn from it. Usually, they're gonna say to be physical with me and stuff. But people don't realize I've got some farm boy in me. I held my own in there!”
Every time the Lakers made a push, the Norse had the answer.  The Norse led the whole way, but by a narrow margin in the first half. After a Delon McLeod basket brought MMC to within 30-28 with five minutes left in the half, the Norse finished the half on a 17-6 run to go into the locker room with a 13-point lead at 47-34.
During that run, Genesis Kemp came off the bench to score eight points, Jaylen Flaniken had a triple and an “and-one” basket on a put-back inside, Hudson and Lamar Grayson both drained triples. The second half, though, would see the Lakers make several runs.
A Kemp basket followed closely by a Ty Creger floater in the lane gave Bay its biggest lead of the game at 55-41. But the Lakers went on a 14-4 run, with third-year player Jamal Lewis knocking down a triple from the top of the key, and Jayden Sims and McLeod both scoring twice.
When it appeared that the Lakers had a shot clock violation, but a McLeod basket counted, Johnson was angry. As he argued the (apparent) blown call, the Norse turned the ball over and the Lakers scored again. All of a sudden, MMC was within 59-55.
But the Norse responded. Joc Overstreet came up court and buried a triple, and Nelson had an “and-one” basket to restore the lead to ten at 65-55.
 McLeod kept his team close by cutting through the lane and scoring six baskets, plus a triple, to finish with 20 points. And Lewis did his thing, mainly inside, and finished with a game-high 32 points (along with a dozen rebounds).
The Norse, however, had more depth.
They only used eight players in this battle, but five of them reached double figures.
Lamar Grayson, the two-time reigning North Division Player of the Week, made the case for an encore as he scored 19 points, including making seven of eight free throw attempts. He also had three assists.
Overstreet was solid, too, making four of his seven triple tries and ending up with 14 points and three assists. Kemp, playing more minutes (27) than he's used to playing, scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds as Nelson sat with foul trouble and Carter Hudson sat with a bad bug.
And point guard Ty Creger didn't score in double figures, but he was dishing dimes, getting eight assists to go along with his eight points.
 “Our effort, and our focus, are the things that we talked about,” Johnson said. “We were the best we've been, in terms of our rotations defensively. We were just really, really good. We played disciplined, and we played together as a team."
The win made for a sweet bus ride home, but Johnson knows it's actually just the beginning. While the Norse have swept all seven conference games thus far, they have to play those same seven teams again, starting this Wednesday night in Petoskey against North Central Michigan, and ending on Feb. 28 at home against these Lakers.
“It's a tight conference on any given night,” Johnson said. “We cannot allow ourselves to slip up and let one of those guys (farther down in the standings) sneak up and get us. They are absolutely capable. At North Central on Wednesday is not going to be an awful lot of fun. They're good, and they're much better than their record.”
Bay improved to 17-4 overall, and 7-0 in league play. NCMC is 6-12 overall and 3-4 in league play. Wednesday's game from Petoskey starts at 7:30 and it will be broadcast live on FM-106.3 and on-line at www.radioresultsnetwork.com.  |
