Bay College Ladies Stroll Past Delta Pioneers, 87-46

SAGINAW, Mich.---The Bay College Norse women's basketball team had five players score in double figures on Saturday, and led from start to finish in an easy 87-46 win over the Delta College Pioneers in suburban Saginaw.

Anna Axtell continuted her torrid scoring pace with 24 more points as the Norse jumped to an 11-2 lead out of the gate and were never confronted by the Pioneers. It is the fifth straight game that Axtell has scored at least 24 points in a game, and in fact, has scored 144 points in that span (28.8 ppg).

In all, Axtell has scored more than 20 points in nine of Bay's 19 games this season, and has scored 391 points all together in her freshman season.

It was not just the Anna Axtell Show on Saturday, as point guard Makenna Hendrickson and forward Lauren Zawada both scored 16 points. Zawada aso had six rebounds and four steals on defense, and Axtell had eight rebounds to go along with her 24 points.

The Norse led, 29-14, after the first quarter, and really clamped down on defense in the second quarter, holding the Pioneers to just seven points. Bay led, 42-21, at halftime.

The Norse forced the Pioneers into 26 tunovers, and took care of the ball on the offensive end with only eight turnovers. And Bay went 19-of-23 from the foul line.

Kennedy Sproule was just shy of a double-double. She had 12 rebounds, but settled for eight points. Sproule also blocked five shots in the contest.

The Bay College bench was also effective, with Anisa Longs getting eleven points and McKenzie Hoffmeyer chipped in ten points. Brooklyn Phillips played 20 minutes and contrubuted four rebounds and two points, and Kyra Anders had seven rebounds and a pair of steals off the bench.

Delta College got ten points and ten rebounds from Hailee Jefferson. The Pioneers fell to 5-12 on the season, 2-3 in the MCCAA.

With the win, the Norse record improved to 11-8 overall, and 4-1 in the MCCAA North Conference, which is good for second place behind nationally-ranked Mid Michigan College. The Lakers are 5-0 in MCCAA play and have scored well over 100 points in all five of those victories.

The Norse get their first crack at the Lakers next Saturday in Mt. Pleasant, but first, Bay has a home game this Wednesday night against Kirtland Community College. The Firebirds are 3-2 in conference play after a 55-51 loss to Montcalm Community College. Wednesday's game at the Bay College gym starts at 5:30 and it will be broadcast lie on FM-106.3.