GRAYLING---The Bay College Norse men's basketball team lost to the Kirtland Community College Firebirds, 69-62, Wednesday night in Grayling.
It marks the first time Bay has ever lost to Kirtland, and it was a performance that Coach Matt Johnson called "embarrassing" after the game.
Bay College jumped off to an 8-2 lead early on, but Kirtland went on a 13-0 run to take a seven point lead midway through the first half. The game was back-and-forth from there, with the score tied at 30-30 at halftime. In the second half, the Norse struggled to defend the Firebird cuts to the basket, and they gave up eleven offensive rebounds to the undersized Kirtland players.
Emerson Droubie made four triples and scored all 14 of his points in the second half, and William Kelley also made three three-pointers to finish with eleven points. Savion Johnson had a stretch where he dominated in the paint, scoring on two straight posessions, with one of them being an "and-one" basket. He finished with eleven points.
But Bay's defense was leaky.The Firebirds got 22 points from Jayvion Sims and 20 points from KJ Hurt, Jr. Hurt also got a game-high ten rebounds.
Kirtland improved to 7-10 overall, 3-2 in the MCCAA North. After the game,the Firebirds celebrated wildly, posing for photos, and blasting loud music from their locker room.
Bay College has now fallen into third place in the conference standings with a 4-2 record (15-5 overall). They'll have a must-win game this Saturday against the undefeated and first place Mid Michigan College Lakers.
---MORE TO COME---
