ESCANABA, MI - The opening weekend for the Bay College Norse Women's Basketball Team (1-1) had a little bit of everything as they easily beat Minnesota North-Vermillion (0-2), 82-47, but came out flat the next day and lost to the College of Lake County (2-0), 53-42.
Other than some exhibition games and weeks of practice, it was the first time Norse Coach Todd Ciochetto has had a chance to see his ladies in live action. The grade so far? Incomplete.
"I actually like where we're at," the coach with a career record of 201-78 said. "I think we're more ahead than I thought we'd be. I'm not happy because we probably should have still won that game [against Lake County]. We still had that game as long as followed our assignments. We showed what we can do when everything's going right."
Everything was going right on Friday against the Vermillion Ironhawks, who made the long trip down from the Minnesota-Canada border with just six players. Bay jumped to a 16-5 lead after one quarter, led 31-16 at halftime, and kept building from there.
Ashlee Burchette (FR, Minneapolis, MN) led the Norse with 31 points in that game.
"At first, I was a little nervous, and I came out shaky," Burchette said. "I ended the game pretty good. Just a good game for me, I guess."
She had seven steals as the Norse defense forced 38 turnovers.
"Defensively, we were just supposed to play hard, and when we got down, we picked each other up," Burchette said, noting that the team was short-staffed with two players still gone with the Norse volleyball team. "In practice, he [Ciochetto] just keeps pushing us to go hard. I feel like as the season goes on, we're going to get closer, and the chemistry is going to be there."
Jada Freudinger (FR, Norway, MI) added 15 points and eleven rebounds, while Siena Lingle (FR, Marquette, MI) scored eleven points and Kennedy Sproule (FR, Winnipeg, MB) contributed eleven points and ten rebounds.
Ceryiah Bradford led Vermillion with 21 points. Trinatee Roberts chipped in twelve points.
"We've got to guard better, we've got to rebound better, and we've got to be tougher," Ciochetto said after the win. "But I thought we took a step."
But on Saturday, the Norse perhaps took a step backward, as they struggled to get much going offensively against Lake County, a team from northern Illinois. They had just ten points in the first 14 minutes of the game, trailing, 19-10, before closing to within 26-25 at halftime as Superior Central's Emma Rutter (SO, Chatham, MI) scored right before halftime.
That momentum continued in the third quarter as the Norse scored the first seven points of the second half, with Lingle nailing a three and Camryn Carver-Bonner (SO, Minneapolis, MN) scoring on a lay-up to give Bay a 32-26 lead with 6:12 left in the third quarter.
But things turned quickly as Lake County made four straight triples, three of them by Chloe Sisco (FR, Fairbury, IL), and Bay fell behind, 43-35, entering the fourth quarter.
"We shut them down for a long time, but then we gave the one girl who could shoot three-pointers, wide-open," Ciochetto said. "That's not okay."
Lake County's momentum carried into the fourth quarter, as they completed what turned out to be a 25-6 run by taking a 51-38 lead late in the game.
Sproule led the Norse with 16 points, including four three-pointers. Burchette scored twelve points, while Lingle added nine points and 12 rebounds.
"I was very disappointed with just about everything in that game, except that we showed what we can do," Ciochetto said. "We'll be better."
The Norse will take their 1-1 record to Iowa next weekend, not far from where Ciochetto coached at NIACC before the pandemic hit. They will face Palm Beach State College (a team the Norse lost to in Florida last January), and will take on Midwest powerhouse Ellsworth Community College on Saturday.
Both games from Iowa Falls will be broadcast live on Maverick 106.3 FM, starting at 1:45 ET on Friday, and at 11:45 a.m. ET on Saturday. The audio will also be streamed on-line, which you can access through the www.baynorse.com schedule page.
Story courtesy of Jack Hall, RRN Sports