By Kalvin D. Perron
Staff Reporter
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BRIMLEY — The Brimley Bays bounced back from their disappointing loss to the Pickford Panthers with a 72-60 victory over the Sault High Blue Devils on Jan. 25. Following their season sweep of the Blue Devils, the Bays suffered a heartbreaking 49-47 loss to Eastern Upper Peninsula Conference (EUPC) rival Cedarville Trojans, Friday, Jan. 28. After suffering an overtime loss to the Brimley Bays earlier in the season, the Cedarville Trojans knocked off the Bays in a hard fought victory, evening the season series, on Brimley's homecoming night. The Bays would bounce back again, however, with a pair of blowout victories over the Detour Raiders and Northern Michigan Christian.
The Sault Blue Devils opened up the first quarter with a 8-0 lead against a seemingly dejected Bays team, but Brimley countered with a 12-4 run over their own to the end the first quarter knotted up at 12 apiece. The two teams nearly fought to a stalemate for the next two quarters, with the Bays leading 48-47 going into the fourth quarter. The Bays offense would awaken in the fourth quarter, however, and go on to outscore the Blue Devils 24-13, including an 18-4 run to start the period, to seal the victory for the Bays.
Nathan Halvorsen led the way for the Bays, finishing with 20 points, while Josh Winkler and Travis Lynn chipped in 16 and 14 points, respectively.
The next challenge for the Bays was a homecoming contest against the Cedarville Trojans. In front of a packed Karl Parker Gymnasium, fans watched in disbelief as Cedarville opened up the first quarter on a 10-0 run. The Bays fought back to a 23-20 lead going into halftime. In third quarter action, Cedarville and Brimley fought back and forth, with Cedarville ultimately coming out on top with a 37-35 edge going into the final quarter. Cedarville managed to keep the Bays offense in check in the fourth quarter, as poor shooting and turnovers proved too costly for Brimley down the stretch. After a Cody Robbins jump shot found the front end of the rim at the buzzer, the Bays found themselves on the losing end of a 49-47 Cedarville victory. With the victory, the Trojans improved to 4-1 in the EUPC, and 10-2 overall, while the Bays would fall to 3-2 in the EUPC, and 9-3 overall.
Brimley Head Coach Reg Robbins said he expected that a game between two teams of this calibre would have come down to the wire. What Robbins didn't expect was to be able to hold Cedarville to 49 points and still lose the game.
“We were two pretty equal teams going back and forth against each other all night long,” he said. “It came down to one shot at the end that didn't go for us. That's how close it was. I really thought that if we could hold a high scoring team like Cedarville to 49 points we'd be in good shape. I guess it just wasn't meant to be that night.”
Travis Lynn led the way for the Bays with 13 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and five steals, while Nathan Halvorsen and Jake Parish each chipped in eight. Kellen Perron and Darick Bowen added eight rebounds apiece in the losing effort. Cedarville was led by seniors Jeff Slater and Ross Hansen with 17 points and eight points, respectively.
Following the Cedarville loss, the Bays tacked on two more wins, over the Detour Raiders and Northern Michigan Christian (NMC), improving their record to 11-3. The Bays blew out Detour by a score of 69-27, and NMC by a final score of 79-40. Brad Cameron led the Bays in scoring in the Detour game with 13 points, followed by Josh Winkler with 10, Darick Bowen with 9 points and 10 boards, Jake Parish with eight, and Cody Robbins and Travis Lynn with seven. In the NMC game, Travis Lynn finished with a triple double and four steals shy of an unheard of quadruple double: 16 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and six steals. Darick Bowen added 17 points and 10 boards.
