ESCANABA — With cold weather sweeping across the upper peninsula, it can mean only one thing; it’s basketball season.

Bay Community College men’s basketball opened its 2023-24 season with a pair of games against Minnesota North College-Hibbing on Friday night and against College of Lake County on Saturday afternoon.

Here’s what went down during the Norse’s opening weekend.

Norse 100, Cardinals 48

Bay College opened its 2023-24 season with a monstrous win over the cardinals. The Norse used a 13-3 run to open a 44-23 lead with 2:07 left in the first half and claimed a 49-28 lead at the half.

The Norse opened the second half on a 9-1 run to force a Cardinals timeout 1:52 into the second half to grow their lead to 58-29. Bay continued its offensive dominance with a 14-8 run to open a 72-37 lead with 13:06 remaining. The Norse finished 38-of-65 shooting from the floor (58.5%), 3-of-10 from 3-point range and 21-of-32 from the free-throw line. The Norse also outrebounded the Cardinals 44-21 and outscored them 62-20 in the paint and saw 50 points from their bench, opposed to 14 from the Cardinals.

MNC-H was bottled to 18-of-55 shooting from the floor and 5-of-23 from downtown.

Ryan Sweeney led Bay with 14 points while adding four rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks. Nic Williams added 12 points, two steals and a rebound. Genesis Kemp added nine points, a team-best eight boards and an assist off the bench.

Norse 56, Lancers 54

Trailing 50-49 with 2:07 left, Kairee Gadson took a pass from Sweeney for a layup and a 51-50 lead, forcing a Lancers timeout. CLC bounced back with a layup from James Glazebrooks to claim a 52-51 lead with 57 seconds left.

With 31 seconds remaining Williams drained a jumper from downtown to give the Norse a 54-52 lead. The Lancers tied it with a layup from Leirre Collier with 18 seconds left.

But the Norse had possession last.

Bay’s Joshua Ofori beat the buzzer with a layup for a 56-54 win.

Gadson led the Norse with 12 points to go with three boards and three helpers. Williams tallied 12 points, two helpers and two steals. Kemp added 10 points, 4 boards and a pair of steals off the bench. Baril Mawo led the norse with five rebounds.

Bay trips to the great state of Minnesota for road matchups against Rochester Community and Technical College at 6 p.m. Friday and against Dakota County Technical College at 4 p.m. Saturday.