IRONWOOD, MI – The Bay Norse Men's Basketball Team (6-2) handed the Vermilion Community College Ironmen (3-1) their first loss of the season on Sunday afternoon. The Norse would win by a final score of 84-67 at the Lindquist Classic hosted by Gogebic Community College.
The Norse would do their damage early, as they would lead by 19 points at the half. Despite the Ironmen hitting 11 three-point shots in the game, the Norse would shoot better overall, hitting 45.5% of their shots from the floor. Vermillion would connect on just 38.2% of their shots, which turned out to be a big advantage for the Norse, considering Bay College would attempt nine more shots in the contest. Rebounding would be the key to creating that discrepancy, as the Norse would have a 54-32 advantage on the boards, a number that would include 23 offensive rebounds for Bay College, while Vermilion would grab just ten. The result would be a 32-9 scoring advantage for the Norse in second chance opportunities.
The Ironmen would actually outscore the Norse by two in the second half, but would not be able to close the gap. Free throws would prove to favor Bay College, as Vermilion would get just four opportunities from the charity stripe, while the Norse would connect on ten of 14 attempts. Bay College would win their sixth straight game, taking the game by a final margin of 17 points.
"We continue to get a little bit better each night out," said Head Men's Basketball Coach Matt Johnson. "Again this weekend, we had different guys step up each day. Logan Hardwick, Marcus McKenney, Christian Alexander, and Ryan Robinette played very well for us on Saturday and Kobi Barnes, Reggie Dean and Tyler Willette played very nice games on Sunday. It was a total team effort, everyone contributed to these two wins. We defended much better than we have, we outrebounded our opponents by 46 rebounds over the weekend and got the free throw line 20 more times than our opponents. We wanted to take advantage of our size advantage and I think those two things show that we did just that. We have a long ways to go and need to continue to get better in some areas, but overall, it was a great weekend with two good team wins."
Kobi Barnes (SO, Milwaukee, WI) would lead all scorers with 21 points, while grabbing ten rebounds. Reggie Dean (FR, Milwaukee, WI) would add 14 points, while Logan Hardwick (FR, Rapid River, MI) would score 11points. Marcus McKenney (SO, Menominee, MI) ended his afternoon with ten points.
David Monell would pace Vermilion with 13 points. Reggie Rogers would add 12 points, while Devontaye Spears would score 11 points and grab four rebounds.
The Norse will take part in the St. Clair County Classic next weekend. Bay College is set to face Mid Michigan College at 4 PM on Friday evening. They will then turnaround and face the host St. Clair County Community College on Saturday. That game is set to tip at 5 PM.