Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and hear comments from Coach Matt Gregory and Norse sophomore Stephanie Frappy.

ESCANABA---The season came to an end for the Bay College women's basketball team Tuesday night after the Norse lost to the 19th-ranked Mid Michigan Lakers, 78-45, at the Bay College Gym. The Norse finished the season tied with Alpena for the fifth and final conference playoff spot, but Alpena won the tiebreaker.

“I am very proud of the effort that these young ladies put forth over the past six months,” Norse Coach Matt Gregory said late Tuesday night, after the tiebreaker sowed his team did not make the playoffs. “Their hard work, dedication, and strong improvement throughout the season will not get unnoticed.”

The Norse finished their season with a 9-19 overall record, 5-9 in their first season in the MCCAA. They were tied with Alpena at 5-9, and the two teams split their head-to-head match-ups, but Alpena had a better record against common non-conferenece opponents than the Norse did.

“Thought making it to the playoffs slipped through our grasp, we will remember it's the journey, not the destination, that we remember most,” Gregory said. “It was one heck of a journey and I was happy to be a small part of it.”

It was a journey that saw the Norse compete in a conference for the first time, and take road trips to the northern forests of Ely, Minnesota, and to the big cities of Chicago and Milwaukee. And a fun, first-time-ever, not-to-be-forgotten, trip to West Palm Beach, Florida, where the Norse played perhaps their best game of the season before losing to Palm Beach State in an intense overtime game.

Gregory paid tribute to his four sophomores, Tianna Taylor, Alyssa Cretton, Stephanie Frappy, and Alaina Trudeau. They were all honored before Tuesday night's game, which, as they found out overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, would be their last.

“They signed on with Bay for the last couple of years, and they committed to us, and they committed to the program,” Gregory said. “They committed to play the game that they've played since they were little. A big kudos to them for going through the adversity that we went through this season, and still knowing that they were going to be there for each other. It's a really, really close bond that the four of them do share.”

“Definitely, us sophomores, we've been through it together,” Frappy said. “It's actually cool to see how much we have grown together. The closeness between the four of us is really cool.”

Two of those sophomores, Trudeau and Cretton, led the Norse in Tuesday night's game, going out on top against the 19th-ranked NJCAA-II team in the country,

Trudeau, a Gladstone High School graduate, scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for a quarter, left the game, and didn't return.

Cretton played all 40 minutes and Trudeau played 39 as the Norse, already down to seven players with the season-ending knee injury to Claire van Ginhoven, were dealt another blow Tuesday when Leah Allan took a hit three minutes into the first double-double in her final Norse game. Cretton, meanwhile, had 15 points and ten rebounds, also recording a double-double.

Trudeau suffered a knee injury of her own during that Florida trip and it looked like her season would be over at that point. But, less than a month later, she was back on the court.

“A great person, with a great personality, who just keeps competing,” Gregory said. “A very, very, very determined kid, who comes back from an injury like that and to want to play and give it her all.”

And as for Cretton, Gregory recognized her as the floor leader who often “took one for the team, rarely getting a break due to the low numbers on the Bay roster.

“A positive, hard-working ethic,” Gregory said. “She's improved so much since the day she first stepped on this floor.”

Frappy, who also played 39 minutes, ended up with seven rebounds and five points.

Mid Michigan led, 17-7, after the first quarter, and then put 25 points on the board in the second quarter to take a 42-18 lead over the Norse heading into halftime.

Jade Kaufmann, who narrowly missed setting a MMC school record for triples in a game the last time these two teams played, hit four of them in the first half, including three in the second quarter. She ended up with five triples for 15 points.

Bay did not roll over in the second half, matching the Lakers in the third quarter, 14-14, and playing even for most of the fourth quarter until the visitors knocked down several triples late in the game to pull away to the 33-point win.

An emotional moment midway through the fourth quarter, when Taylor fouled out of the game. Taylor couldn't hold back the tears as she sideline, being hugged by Assistant Coaches Paige Welch and Kennedy Englund, and praised by Gregory.

“She just has that positive energy and does a lot of little things on defense that sometimes gets unnoticed,” Gregory said. “She probably has our school record for taking charges, although we don't keep track of those things.”

Bailey Vissman had 14 points for Mid Michigan, and inside-out player Brooke Brauher added 12 points and seven rebounds for the MCCAA North Conference champions.