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MT. PLEASANT---”Beat Bay”.
Those two words were pasted on the T-shirts being sold Tuesday night as the Mid Michigan College Lakers hosted the Bay College Norse.
The Lakers came into the game confident, riding a long winning streak, an 8th-in-the-nation ranking in the NJCAA-II poll, and a home court advantage unlike any other in the MCCAA.
The Morey Courts, an AAU facility surrounded by white curtains, where you can hear whistles and buzzers sounding in courts on the other side of the curtains, was the venue. It was filled with four-row high bleachers around the entire room, and it was filled with screaming fans, many of them Laker baseball players, wearing “Beat Bay” shirts.
The Bay College Norse were not impressed, in fact, they thrived in the atmosphere, pulling out an 88-85 upset win, quieting the crowd that screamed almost non-stop.
“That's what it's supposed to be,” Norse Coach Matt Johnson said. “Intense. Fun. Exciting. Mid Michigan played really, really well. Our guys played their butts off, man. That was awesome. Emotions were high. It's a rivalry game. Obviously, it means something to them or they wouldn't print shirts with our name on it. It was a big one, and I am proud as hell of our guys and the effort they gave.”
The win avenged an earlier 87-66 loss to the Lakers, and it gave the Norse a large amount of confidence heading into the playoffs after winning three games in four days.
Beat Bay? Not this time.
Bay led for most of the game, jumping to a 20-10 lead on a couple of Will Kelley triples. Two slicing baskets by Trey Frye III, and Savion Johnson adding a two-handed slam dunk and an “and-one” basket in the paint.
The two teams traded baskets for most of the first half, with the Lakers nailing nine triples, often it looked like Bay might build a semi-comfortable lead. Kyle Hustrulid had two straight baskets to help the Norse hold 26-18 and 28-23 leads, but Amonti Green brought the house down with a driving one-handed jam that made it 30-28.
Bay, however, stabilized, with Kelley scoring five more points, Emerson Droubie knocking down two triples, and Frye scoring an “and-one” basket to rebuild a ten-point lead at 44-34. Mid Michigan finished the half strong, however, with Christian Zielinski scoring a triple and a long two, and Bryce White adding a pair of triples off the bench.
The Norse led, 51-47, after a wild first half played at a break-net pace.
The second half started more calmly, with the Norse holding single-digit leads and threatening to break it open. Each time, the Lakers would come right back. Zielinski knocked down two more three's and Jaden Clark added a triple and a jumper in the lane.
Bay's lead was down to 66-62 before Frye found Hustrulid for a lefty lay-up on the base line, and after Clark cut the Bay lead to 72-69 with four minutes left, the Norse got some held off the bench from Mohmmed Madey. Madey scored inside and then swished a confident three-point basket, building Bay's lead to 77-69 with three minutes left on the clock. And after two Laker free throws cut it to 77-71, Hustrulid stepped up for a three-point basket that gave Bay College a 80-71 lead from the top of the key with 5:36 left.]
Mid Michigan scored two straight baskets to cut it to 80-75, but Madey swished another three-pointer to put Bay in front, 83-75, with 2:28 to play.
The drama was just getting started. Green scored to get his team to within 83-78, Droubie missed a corner three, and the rebound appeared to deflect off Kelley's hand out of bounds. But the ball was given to Bay, and Droubie stepped up with a big triple at the end of the shot clock in front of the Norse bench, making it 86-78 with 1:36 left.
But it went down to the wire because the Norse turned the ball over twice and Droubie missed four of his six free throws in the final 34 seconds, with the entire place screaming at him. Savion Johnson also missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Zielinski's triple, with a man in his face, cut it to 86-81 with 29 seconds to play. The Norse turned it over on the inbounds pass, but the Lakers threw up an airball from downtown. Frye went the other way to shoot free throws, but also missed the front end of the one-and-one. Caleb Lindsey nailed a triple with a man in his face for Mid Michigan, cutting the Bay College lead to 86-84.
Finally, Frye made a huge defensive play with the Lakers down two and 12 seconds left and coming up court with a chance to win it. Droubie made one free throw with 5.8 seconds to play and it was 87-84.
The Lakers had no time outs remaining, and their long pass to Green led to a catch-and-shoot three-point shot. But before Green could shoot, the Norse fouled him on the floor, Green made the first free throw, missed the second on purpose, and it didn't hit the rim, so the Norse had the ball with 2.2 seconds to play, leading by two.
They fouled Droubie, he split his free throws with 1.5 seconds left, and the Lakers had another chace to tie it with a triple. They got it to Green at the top of the three point liel
Bay had six players score in double figures, led by Kelley's 18 points, on 6-of-12 shooting (4-of-7 from three-point land). Frye had 15 points, nine assists, four steals, and five rebounds. Hustrulid and Droubie both added 13 points, and Savion Johnson had a double-double of 11 points and 11 boards. Madey had ten points.
Mid Michigan (23-5 overall, 13-1 MCCAA) still won the conference championship and will play in the state tournament this weekend at Henry Ford College near Detroit. The Lakers were led by Zielinski with 20 points and Parks had 19 points and ten rebounds.
Beat Bay? Not this time.
“Caleb (House, Laker coach) has the best (JUCO-II) basketball team in the State of Michigan,” Matt Johnson said. “We defended our butts off. I mean, these guys score 97 points a game. We held them to twelve points below that. What we did in the second half (38 points) allowed, I'm super proud of that. We got them to miss shots and got them to be uncomfortable.”
And what about those “Beat Bay” shirts?
“I think it's awesome.” Matt Johnson said. There's a reason all the kids went over and bought them, They bought 3X shirts, and not a single one of our guys fit in a 3X shirt. We fit into a 'shmeedium'. That's what rivalry basketball is supposed to be. Their student section under the one end was great. The one in the end where we were shooting free throws was fantastic. That's what it's all about. Their guys were (trash) talking. Our guys were talking. It was an emotional conference battle.”
Bay College (22-6 overall, 11-3 MCCAA) will move on to the NJCAA Region 12 tournament with a home game next Tuesday against Kirtland Community College. The Norse lost to Kirtland in Grayling this season, and beat the Firebirds on a neutral court this past Sunday. The winner of that game moves to the regional semifinals in Flint.
Game time on Tuesday starts at 5:30 and it will be broadcast live on FM-106.3.
