GRAYLING---The Bay College Norse men's basketball team won its 13th straight game and stayed undefeated in conference play Wednesday night, but it wasn't easy. The Norse had to grind out a 74-71 win over the Kirtland Community College Firebirds in snowy Grayling. 

It wasn't pretty, but the Norse improved to 12-0 in MCCAA play, and 22-4 overall. They have a 1 1/2 game lead over second place Mid Michigan, with two games left in the regular season.
 

“We just weren't very good,” Norse Coach Matt Johnson said. “That's the bottom line. We were lucky to get a win, to be honest with you. We had guys that were doing things that were completely out of character. Energy level was completely not there. I expected us to respond better in the second half because I challenged them in the locker room (at halftime). But we lost the second half (35-32). It's a little bit disappointing.”

Actually, the Norse did outscore the Firebirds, 24-15, to start the second half after carrying a 42-36 lead into the locker room. A basket inside the paint from sophomore Justin Nelson gave the Norse their biggest lead of the game at 66-51.

But Bay seemed to coast down the stretch against the first-year Firebirds team, and Coach Nile Finney's team, with five players on the roster from Miami, Florida, finished the game on a 20-8 run to make the score close at the end.

Much of that was on the three-point shooting of Kirtland's Greg Wilson, who drained eight triples (five in the second half) and had a game-high 32 points. The game wasn't technically over until Wilson heaved a desperation half-court air-ball at the buzzer.
 

“It was ugly,” Nelson said. “I mean, it's a win in the scorebook, but we definitely need to be better. This can't happen against the better teams like Delta and Mid Michigan (this weekend's opponents). So, we've got to come back, and use this as a learning experience.”

Neither Nelson nor Johnson were making excuses, but there was no atmosphere inside the Kirtland Gym on this night, as a winter storm raged outside.

This game was one of only two men's games played in the entire MCCAA on Wednesday, with nine other games called off.

There were only a handful of fans in the stands.

“You know, with the weather, the empty gym, you can hear what everybody's saying, it's tough,” Nelson said. “It takes a lot of mental toughness to fight through adversity like this. But we got it done.”

Nelson certainly did his part, making seven of his ten shots from the field, and scoring 18 points on the heels of what he considered a sub-par performance last Saturday in Muskegon.

Nelson, a West Iron County graduate, also grabbed seven rebounds. He also had only one foul whistled against him in a game where 40 personal fouls were called.
 

“It started before the game for me, just locking in, and you can't just do that at the start of the game,” Nelson said. “That's the mistake I made at Muskegon. So, I locked in on the bus, and carried that through to the game,”

In fact, thoughout the game, Nelson was so dominant that Johnson kept imploring his guys to keep pounding the ball into the 6-foot-8-inch center.

“We had a size advantage and we knew he was going to do that,” Johnson said. “Justin played a really good game.”

The Norse trailed for much of the early part of the game, before Nelson got a two-handed slam dunk and Lamar Grayson drailed a triple to give Bay a 32-28 lead with 4:38 left in the first half.

Ty Creger scored with a drive in the paint to make it 40-30, and Nelson scored another basket on the baseline to make it 42-33.

In the second half, Genesis Kemp gave the team his usual boost off of the bench. With the Norse leading just 43-40, Kemp nailed a triple, and then after a Firebird basket, drove to the basket for two more, making it 48-42.
 

After Kirtland made another mini-run that brought it to within 55-51, Kemp knocked down another three, and she scored a leaner in the lane. Nelson's basket on the post completed an 11-0 run and make it 66-51.

But the Firebirds didn't go away, and a barrage of triples, including two in a span of just a few seconds in the final 20 seconds, brought them to within 73-71. Grayson was fouled with six tenths of a second left on the clock, and split a pair of free throws, giving Kirtland one last chance for a desperation heave. It was not close.

The Norse were short on guards in the second half. Joc Overstreet did not make the trip, Creger sat the entire second half (coach's decision), and Jaylen Flaniken was fouled and crashed into the boards, hurting his leg. So, Mike Foust (25 minutes) and Parker Maki (six minutes) had to chew up some clock, with Grayson running the show.

“There were a handful of guys who really stepped up, and did a nice job,” Johnson said. “Mike and Parker are the obvious ones who played significantly more than they typically do. We had to rise to the occasion.”
 

For weeks during Bay's 13-game winning streak, Johnson has been warning that his team was ripe for an upset somewhere along the line. He's hoping that Wednesday's flat performance is as close as his team comes to having that “slip-up”.

“It is what it is,” Johnson said. “We're still undefeated in the league, and we still control our own destiny.”

Despite the lack of artistic beauty, the Norse did still shoot 50-percent from the floor (28-of-56), and had three players score in double figures: Nelson with 18 points (7-of-10 shooting, plus seven rebounds), Kemp with 19 points (6-of-13 shooting, plus seven boards), and Grayson with 17 points (6-of-10 shooting).

Kirtland fell to 3-15 overall and 3-9 in MCCAA play. The Firebirds, and Alpena (which beat North Central Michigan in Wednesday's only other game, 74-60) now trail Muskegon by a half game for the final playoff spot in the conference. Muskegon plays second-place Mid-Michigan in a make-up game Thursday night.

For the Norse, the regular season road trips are over. They will be at home on Saturday against Delta College, and then a potential Battle Royale with Mid Michigan to close the season Tuesday night.

The Bay College-Delta game will be played in Escanaba at 3:00 on Saturday.

The teams will be taking part in the MCCAA-wide "Hunger Games", where all of the teams will be collecting non-perishable food items to support local charities. In Bay College's case, the food and cash donations collected will support the Escanaba Salvation Army. In lieu of admission fees, people are asked to bring at least two non-perfishable food items.