Click the AUDIO button to hear comments from Coach Matt Johnson.

ALPENA---A nightmare.
 

That's the best was to describe the road trip that the Bay College Norse men's basketball team took to Alpena on Wednesday to face the ACC Lumberjacks.
 

The team bus got stuck in a white out on US-2, about 15 miles from the Mackinac Bridge, and didn't move for more than two hours. And a 7:30 game time became a 9:15 tip-off, after the Norse women's team defeated the Lumberjacks in the first game.
 

The Norse men battled through the change to their routine, played (again) without sick players, and still posted a 101-53 win over the Lumberjacks.
 

“That was the worst trip we've ever been on in nine years of Bay College basketball,” Norse Coach Matt John son said. “It was terrible. I don't think there's any question that the MVP today is Greg, our bus driver. To drive us through that mess, keep us safe, and not put us in the ditch or collide with anybody, was huge.”
 

The Norse substituted freely throughout the game, and all of the rotations seemed to work well, especially on offense. Bay jumped to a 21-10 lead, but Alpena's Derian Williams did his best to keep his team in the game.
 

The Lumberjacks closed to within 21-17 with 9:07 left in the half before going on a 13-4 run, capped by a William Kelley triple off the bench. That made it 34-21 and after Alpena closed to within 38-29, the Norse went on another 10-2 spurt on triples by Sweeney and Nic Williams.
 

And in the second half, the Norse were never threatened, and they gradually added to their lead while also shutting down Alpena's Williams. He had 19 points in the first half but only two points in the second half.
 

The Bay bench players outscored the Lumberjacks, 15-3, in the final five minutes. The highlights were a half-court steal and driving lay-up by Dylan Plunger, and triples from Drake Johnson and Connor Coduti.
 

“It's probably the most mentally-tough we've been this year,” Coach Johnson said. “In the pre-game, I told the guys, hey, we've got every excuse imaginable right now. We sat in a bus for two hours and didn't move. It's tough to go through that and then be ready to play a game, and we had to do it with a shortened warm-up and a shortened halftime. And I thought we did a great job with that.”
 

The Norse bench was dominant, outscoring the ACC bench, 48-16. Parker Fahning had his second-biggest scoring total of the season with 14 points. Kelley added 12 points, also off the bench. And Tre Sanigar chipped in five points, six assists, five rebounds, and three steals.

As for the starting five, Nic Williams had 14 points, Sweeney and Josh Williams both had 11 points, and Joe Ofori contributed ten points and nine rebounds.
 

“We had 32 assists,” Coach Johnson said. “Definitely a season-high and it may be a Bay College record. We shared the ball really well. We shot pretty well, especially in the second half. We did some really, really nice things offensive, and I thought defensively, we were much better in the second half than we were in the first.”
 

Bay College improved to 14-4 on the season, 3-1 in MCCAA play. The Norse hold down the Number 18 ranking in this week's NJCAA Division Two national poll. With the loss, Alpena fell to 1-12 overall, and 0-4 in conference play.
 

The Norse are back on the road this Saturday to take on the Delta College Pioneers near Saginaw. The Pioneers are 6-11 overall and 1-3 in conference play after a wild 105-95 loss to Mid Michigan in Mt. Pleasant Wednesday night. Delta had a five-point lead with twelve minutes to play before the MMC Lakers caught fire.
 

Saturday's game tips at 3:00 and will be broadcast live on FM-106.3.