Austin Hemmingson | Daily Press Bay College’s Chris Dobessi drives past Alpena Community College’s Chris DeRocher during Monday’s game at Bay College.

ESCANABA — Before Monday night’s home game against Alpena Community College, coach Matt Johnson put a list of things on the board in the locker room he wanted his Bay College men’s basketball team to accomplish.

The Norse did all of those things, and were lifted by a brilliant shooting display from Ryan Robinette to upend Alpena 90-67.

“We put just a handful of small things up on the board before the game — some keys that we wanted to make sure that we did,” Johnson said. “Small little battles, right? We wanted to win the battle on the boards, we wanted to turn the ball over less than they did and we wanted to make more free throws than they shot, and we did all those things. That’s huge, that’s big for us.”

The Norse (5-3) had to work for it against a scrappy Alpena team. Bay led just 25-20 midway through the first half before going on a 20-7 run, which was capped by three straight triples from Robinette to take a 45-27 lead with 3:26 left in the first half.

Robinette finished with a game-high 25 points after going 7-of-13 from 3-point range.

“I think the biggest thing is that we started moving the ball early, we reversed it and moved it to the inside out, and that allowed Ryan to get shots in rhythm,” Johnson said. “When Ryan gets shots in rhythm, Ryan’s really, really good, and he showed that tonight. When he takes shots off the dribble, they’re not in rhythm, his feet aren’t set and he’s a pretty average player. But when his feet are set, I’ll put him up against anybody.

“They sat in a 2-3 zone, and we did a great job getting the ball to the short corner and the high post. We got it inside, kicked it out, and Ryan hit some shots. When he starts feeling good and he’s a little bit confident, it looks like he’s throwing the ball in the ocean. He’s just going to let them keep flying, and he knocked down a bunch of them for us. He was 7-of-13 from 3 tonight — that’s a heck of an effort.”

Bay led 47-30 at the half, then built its lead to 58-36 on a driving layup by Robinette just over three minutes into the second half.

The Lumberjacks (0-6) fought back to pull within 74-60 after two free throws by Isaac Hogsett with just over five minutes remaining, but that’s as close as they would get.

“I thought we played decent,” Lumberjacks’ coach Mark Jacobs said. “We had some really good moments, we just couldn’t get our shots to fall tonight. That was the story of the whole game — we just couldn’t hit our shots, and they shot the heck out of the ball.”

Bay committed just seven turnovers while forcing 17, and closed down the stretch against an Alpena team that wouldn’t go down silently.

“I thought our guys played with energy, I thought they played hard, and we needed to,” Johnson said. “I don’t care what the scoreboard says at the end, that Alpena team plays really hard. There were some times where they made us look not very good. That’s a good team that’s going to win a lot of games. Mark always has them get after it, they always play hard and they do some really good stuff.

“It was a good overall team win for us. It wasn’t easy, I can tell you that.”

Chris Dobessi scored 16 points, while Christian Alexander added 15 and 11 rebounds for the Norse.

Hogsett led the Lumberjacks with 18 points. Chris DeRocher added 16 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.

The Norse face Leech Lake Tribal College (Minn.) Saturday at 4 p.m. EST and Vermillion Community College of Ely, Minn. Sunday at 1 at Gogebic Community College.

“(We have) a short turnaround with the holiday break in here. We watch film tomorrow, we get Thursday off, we get back in and have practice Friday, and then we hit the road early on Saturday,” Johnson said. “We’ve got two winnable games this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, but we’re going to have to bring our A-game and play very well. If we can be as disciplined this weekend as we were today, I think we’ve got a shot. I’m excited to see if we can kind of get something rolling here, because our guys are playing with confidence and we’re getting a little bit better every day out.”

Alpena C.C. 30 37 — 67

Bay College 47 43 — 90

Alpena Community College — Hogsett 18, DeRocher 16, Bodiford 8, Woodward 6, Miller 5, Guenther 4, Nicolas 4, Goebel 3, Ross 3. FT: 14-17; F: 19; Fouled out: None. 3-point field goals: Hogsett 2, DeRocher 1, Miller 1, Ross 1.

Bay College — Robinette 25, Dobessi 16, Alexander 15, Harris 6, Wagner 5, Yohe 5, Fleming 4, Masuga 4, Fields 4, Mattson 3, Contreras 3. FT: 18-24; F: 18; Fouled out: None. 3-point field goals: Robinette 7, Harris 2, Wagner 1, Contreras 1, Yohe 1.