HANCOCK, MI - The Bay College Norse Women's Basketball Team (7-12) fell behind early, 15-5, and couldn't recover, falling to the Finlandia University Lions (10-7), 64-44, at the Nurmi Center in Hancock.

It was the first game for the Norse in exactly two weeks.

Bailey Froberg (SR, L'Anse, MI) scored 20 points to lead the Lions to their tenth win of the season. The final score is a bit deceiving. The margin was between seven and 12 points for most of the afternoon before the Lions pulled away in the final minutes.

"They are obviously a four-year school, and a rivalry school being in the U.P.," Bay College Head Coach Matt Gregory said, noting that the Lions have eight four-year seniors on the roster. "I think the game, for the most part, was pretty competitive. Coach [Mariah] Dunham came up to me and said 'your players play hard, they listen, and they care about each other'. All the good things you like to hear as a coach."

After FinnU jumped to the 18-7 lead, the Norse scored seven straight points to close to within 18-14 after the first ten minutes. Kennedy Englund (SO, Rock, MI) drained a couple of threes and had nine points in the quarter, matching the eight points that Froberg put up.

But in the second quarter, the Norse hit a long dry spell on offense, getting just two points against the Lions pressure defense before Bree Arsenault (SO, Hermansville, MI) sank a triple just before halftime to bring Bay to within 40-29 at the intermission.

An Englund shot from behind the arc brought Bay to within 41-34 in the third quarter, but they could get no closer. Bay trailed, 46-36, at the end of the third quarter.

But in the fourth quarter, Finlandia got two threes and a total of eight points from Ellie Djerf (FR, Calumet, MI) who transferred to FinnU from Northern Michigan University. She had ten points.

The Norse committed 30 turnovers and yielded 18 offensive rebounds to the Lions.

"That's part of the reason why it kind of got out of hand at the end," Gregory said. "But we did turn them over 19 times, so, not a bad feet defensive-wise."

Katie Lundeen (SR, Maple, WI), who was honored in a pre-game ceremony for crossing the 1,000 point mark in her career, scored 11 points for the Lions.

Englund led the Norse with 16 points, with four triples. Andie Arsenault (FR, Hermansville, MI) contributed seven points and led the team in rebounds with nine.

The Norse will travel to Sault Ste. Marie to face the Lake Superior State University Lakers JV Tuesday night at 6:00.

Story and photo courtesy of Jack Hall, RRN Sports