Bay College Women Break Six-Game Losing Streak
Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, hear post-game comments from Paige Welch and Chevy Koski, and Tianna Taylor's player spotlight interview.
ESCANABA---The Bay College women’s basketball team snapped a six-game losing streak on Saturday with a 67-50 win over the South Suburban (Ill.) Bulldogs at the Bay College Gym. It was just the fifth home game of the season for Bay, after playing 13 of the first 17 games on the road, and having other games cancelled.
The Norse passed the ball well, and shot the ball extremely well, in giving Paige Welch a win as the acting Bay head coach. She was filling in for Head Coach Matt Gregory for Saturday’s game.
“They played really well together and I was happy to see them doing the things that we’ve been stressing,” Welch said. “We played as a team. We found the better shot, and knew when to pass it to someone who was on fire. They made a lot of better decisions, and that was a lot of fun to watch.”
Welch, who played for the Norse in the first two seasons of the program’s existence, coached alongside fellow former player Haley Trudell. They were pressed into service with Gregory chiming in remotely through text messages.
“It was super fun,” Welch said. “I thought I was going to be a lot more nervous than I was, but I wasn’t really that nervous at all. I think because I was a player for so long, and I’m with these girls every day. I was comfortable. The girls were excited for me and supportive of me. I had a good time. Very happy to walk out with a win.”
The Norse shot 51 percent from the floor (25-of-49) and made 11 of their 24 three-point attempts (46%). Kennedy Englund had four of those triples, and Andie Arsenault sank three of the treys. They both had 13 points.
“We really needed this one under our belts,” said Norse forward Chey Koski, who scored nine points, added six rebounds and three assists. “We were really excited to get out and play. Coach Paige and Coach Halley have been doing really good with us in practice, and we wanted to get this win today for Coach Greg. He was texting Coach Paige and Coach Halley at halftime to give us little tips on what to do. We told him we’d get him a win for his birthday because yesterday (Friday) was his birthday.”
Madison Olsen added eight points, including two triples that broke Bay away from a 15-12 ballgame to a 36-22 lead at halftime. Bay led by as many as 26 points in the third quarter (49-23) before the Bulldogs went on a 16-2 run to close to within twelve points at 51-39.
The Norse, though, responded with some nice passing to set up inside “and-one” baskets for Chevy Koski and Bree Arsenault. And the icing on the cake was a three-pointer by Tianna Taylor, to go along with her “and-one” finish inside.
“We’ve been working on passing because sometimes we don’t always make the right choice,” Welch said. “The last couple of days at practice, we did a lot of ‘pressure passing’.”
“I was really confident with the ball,” Koski said. “I haven’t had that in a while. I had some good looks inside. We had really good passing today. We were really patient. Normally, our passes inside get tipped.”
All ten Bay players scored at least two points in the win.
South Suburban (4-12) was led by Johnique Smith, who had 13 points and six rebounds. Destiny Johnson added nine points and eight boards.
Bay College improved to 7-11 on the season and will be idle until Jan. 29 when the Norse play Finlandla (unless some last-minute games can be added in the meantime).
