Click the thumbnails to see videos from the weekend games. Also click the AUDIO buttons to hear commebnts from Coach James Fassett, and player spotlight interviews with Shyanna Halfaday and Gracie Kleikamp.
CHICAGO---The Bay College Norse women's basketball team split a pair of games in the Chicago suburbs this weekend, losing a heartbreaking 68-67 decision to the Oakton College Owls Friday afternoon, and then bouncing back for a dominating 86-46 win over the McHenry College Scots on Saturday.
The result leaves the 21st-ranked Norse with a 6-2 record as the team continues to navigate its early-season schedule ahead of the MCCAA North conference games, which begin in January. Bay has won or shared the conference championship in each of the last two seasons since joining the MCCAA and NJCAA Region 12.
On Saturday, the Norse fell behind the Scots, 5-0, before taking complete control of the game, en route to a 26-9 lead after the first quarter.
Makenna Hendrickson came out hot, scoring ten points in that first quarter. By the time the game reached halftime, the Norse had a 49-22 lead, with Lauren Zawada scoring 16 points heading into the locker room.
The Norse kept building the lead in the second half, with McKenzie Hoffmeyer taking advantage of Scots turnovers to score ten of her 14 points after halftime. In all, Bay had four players score in double figures, with Nina Bower scoring 13 points to go along with Zawada (16), Hoffmeyer (14), and Hendrickson (13).
“I told the team before the game that they were going to play zone (defense),” Norse Coach James Fassett said. “It was a different type of zone. Yesterday's zone was a little bit more extended, a little bit more match-up. This was a little more packed in. But we were able to deal with it pretty good today.”
Bay made ten triples in the victory, with Hendrickson and Bower each getting three, and Hoffmeyer and Jillian Fraser each sinking two treys.
McHenry (0-8 overall) got eleven points from Cassidy Serpe and ten points from Mikayla Sams. The Scots got to the foul line 21 times, making 13 of the free throws, with the Norse shooting a third of that total (4-of-7). The Bay defense forced 36 turnovers in the victory.
The win for Bay came just hours after a heart-wrenching loss to Oakton the night before. The final seconds of that game were those you had to see to believe.
Down 68-66, the Norse had the ball in their hands with 20.6 seconds left.
They got the ball to Zawada, but Oakton's Anna Prim used her size advantage to block Zawada's shot, and Zawada was called for a foul with 4.6 seconds left, putting the Owls' Ashlie Riley at the free throw line. Riley missed both shots, but the Norse didn't box out, and Oakton got the offensive rebound with 2.3 seconds to play. One problem: the Owls did not have any time outs left.
So, a technical foul was called, putting Hendrickson at the foul line for two shots that would tie the game. She missed the first, got the second, making it 68-67. But the game still was not over. The Norse had the ball with a chance to win it.
And the Norse went to their bread-and-butter clutch play to win it. Bower throws it in from the sideline, and a guard goes to the baseline, ready for the pass. It worked against Rock Valley earlier this year with a winning basket by Hendrickson, and also worked last year in Florida, but the Norse missed the winning lay-up.
This time, the pass went to Hendrickson, and she was all alone next to the basket. Unfortunately, she missed the wide-open lay-up, rebounded her miss, and got off another shove at the basket in the final split second. No good. Heartbreaking loss.
The ending was obviously depressing, but Fassett said that there were a lot of factors during the entire game that led to that loss. It was the second loss of the season for the Norse, both of them by one thin point.
“There were a lot of things, a lot of rebounds that we didn't get, a lot of plays that we didn't make,” Fassett said. “We could have made that not be a one-point game, you know? We could have extended that (lead). She (Hendrickson) is gonna beat herself up (she did). But when you're a competitor, you should. But you know, if we run it again, I would run it the exact same way. She won a game for us running it. If we run it again, she's the person I would run it to.”
In the Oakton game, Hoffmeyer led the way with 20 points in what was an entertaining game that ended in a bizarre way. The Norse outscored the Owls, 22-9, in the second quarter, and led, 33-22, at halftime. But the third quarter belonged to Oakton, outscoring the Norse, 27-15, as five different Owls scored points.
That set up the fantastic finish that unfortunately, did not go Bay's way. The Owls (10-1 overall) had four players score in double figures: Ari Milam-Pryor had 18 points, Arianna LaBeau added 14, Riley and Daphnie Brown each scored ten points. Prim blocked four shots altogether for the Owls.
Bay College (6-2) will host a holiday tournament next weekend as the semester comes to an end. North Central Michigan College will face Milwaukee Area Technical College in the first game Friday at 2:00, and then after a men's game at 4:00, the Norse women will take on Glen Oaks Community College at 6:00.
