Click the thumbnails to see photos and video highlights, and to hear post-game comments from Nina Bower and Coach James Fassett. Also click the AUDIO buttons to hear Aubree Blackburn's player spotlight interview.
IRONWOOD---The Bay College women's basketball team completed a series sweep of its Upper Peninsula rivals, the Gogebic Community College Samsons, 92-71, Thursday night in Ironwood. The 22nd-nationally-ranked Norse trailed, 20-19, after the first quarter, but pulled away to an eight-point lead at halftime and gradually built on that in the second half.
It was the Bark River-Harris connection at the top of the leaderboard, with Nina Bower scoring a career high 22 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the floor. And Lauren Zawada, who won the MCCAA North Conference Player of the Week for a second time this season earlier in the day, went scoreless in the first half before exploding for 25 points in the second half.
“We played four at home, and we were 4-0,” Norse Coach James Fassett said. “Now, two on the road and we're 5-1 now. Not great games on the road. Sometimes, you've just got to do what you've got to do to win. But we've got to clean it up on the road. And make lay-ups!”
Bower's inside-out game was good, and she grabbed eight rebounds to go along with those 22 points.
“I felt like I found the rebounds better than I have been,” Bower said. “That led me to a lot of “and-one” shots because when I put them (shots) back, they fouled me. So, that felt good for me. We got the win. That's what was important.”
Bower was active off the dribble as well, going downhill to get to the basket.
“That's something I've been working on,” Bower said. “I've definitely been wanting to do that more. So, I just told myself tonight that I've got to attack a couple of times. Once I got a couple to fall, I felt more confident to do it more.”
Marquette's Aubree Blackburn added 12 points and 16 rebounds for a double-double.
“Sixteen rebounds, ten of them offensive,” Fassett said. “I mean, that's amazing.”
There were 48 fouls called in the game between the two teams, and they shot a combined 55 free throws.
“It was a lot,” Fassett said. “Obviously, some of them were warranted some of them weren't. We talk about that: defend without fouling, and when they're calling it like they were, you've got to keep your hands off, and you've got to keep your hands wide. But we're actually doing pretty well from the free throw line (25-of-28), so we've kind of cleaned that up. 89 percent from the foul line is pretty good.”
“We kind of expected it to be rough,” Bower said. “We knew that we had to keep fighting, fighting for the rebounds, we knew that we'd be able to finish it out and come out on top.
But the Norse struggled from the three-point line, making just one of 18 attempts in the first half. They made two of nine in the second half for a paltry 3-of-27 total.
“That was bad, and we talked about it at halftime,” Fassett said. “Like, let's not take the first open three. If we swing it, move it, and maybe later in the shot clock. But we don't need to be shooting the first one. We weren't much better in the second half, but at least we shot less.”
Zawada picked up two early fouls and did not play most of the first half. She got going in the second half, putting up 21 shots, and making nine. She also went 6-for-6 at the foul line, and pulled down nine rebounds.
Gogebic (2-4) was led by Kyla Hanson of Drummond, Wis., who scored 17 points off the bench, on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor and 5-of-6 from the foul line. Carney-Nadeau's Grace Maule contributed 16 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Ironwood's Hannah Vaughn also reached double figures in scoring with 15 points, and she chipped in six rebounds.
For the Norse, McKenna Hendrickson scored 13 points and had nine rounds, making for four Bay players scoring in double figures. Nine different Bay players scored in the win.
It became a very long night for the Norse after the game, as a winter storm rolled into the western U.P. just as the team boarded the bus to come home. Snow-covered roads made for an extremely slow drive, and then, near Watersmeet, the wipers on the bus failed. Efforts to fix the wipers failed, so another bus had to be brought from Marquette to bring the Norse home.
The team arrived on the Escanaba campus at 5:50 in the morning on Wednesday.
Bay College (5-1) will enjoy the Thanksgiving break with some down time, and will return to practice on Sunday, ahead of another road trip the following weekend. Bay will head down to northern Illinois for two games on December 5th and 6th, against McHenry and Oakton Community Colleges.
