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Good bench showing: Northern Michigan University men’s basketball coach Bill Sall credits subs for bringing energy in Wildcats’ exhibition win

Northern Michigan University’s Dolapo Olayinka, center, moves around Bay College defender Damian Richmond, right, and Alfonzo Fields in a college men’s basketball exhibition game Sunday afternoon at the Berry Event Center in Marquette. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

“I was happy to see when we went to the bench that those guys were able to up the energy level a little bit and picked it up on the defensive end.” — Bill Sall, head coach, NMU men’s basketball

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MARQUETTE — Freshman forward Dolapo Olayinka notched 21 points while freshman guard Alec Fruin was strong from behind the arc sinking five 3-pointers for the Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team in an exhibition against Bay College on Sunday.

Playing at the Berry Events Center, the Wildcats won 107-68 in its second exhibition of the weekend.

The Wildcats were 44 for 79 shooting against a Bay team that played its first contest since 1978 when its athletics program was discontinued.

NMU head coach Bill Sall said his team got off to a slow start until he called on his bench.

“I wasn’t very happy with our first 10 minutes,” he said. “We didn’t come up with the energy I was hoping for, but I was happy to see when we went to the bench that those guys were able to up the energy level a little bit and picked it up on the defensive end.”

Sall added that there’s still things that need to be fine-tuned before the regular season begins.

“It’s obviously still a huge work in progress of the things that we have to work on,” he said. “Our execution on the offensive end is less than good right now and we’re still trying to learn the ‘vanilla’ aspects of our defense.

“For two games in, I feel good. These were two really good opportunities from an exhibition standpoint to play two teams that gave us different looks and we were able get a lot of guys some playing time.”

Bay head coach Matt Johnson said he was happy to finally see his team on the court and said there were some things that could be learned from the exhibition.

“It went a little bit how we anticipated it would go and the coaching staff thought it would go,” he said. “We had sections of game where we played really well, but when you have 14 guys that have never played a college basketball game you expect that there’s going to be some bumps and some difficulties.

“All in all, I’m as happy as I can be with a game that ends up with a score like it did. I think we got some really good things out of it and I think we figured out some things that we also have to work on.”

The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead, but Bay pulled within 20-17 when Negaunee alumnus Dre Tuominen nailed a 3-pointer.

NMU started pulling away near the midpoint of the first half and gave the fans in attendance a show, seeing Fruin drop 3-pointers and Olayinka slam home a dunk to make it a 20-point game 5:11 before halftime.

Upper Peninsula freshmen got some playing time for the Wildcats. Iron Mountain’s Carson Wonders, whose parents Julie (Heldt) Wonders and Matt Wonders also played NMU basketball, tallied six points and four rebounds, while North Central’s Marcus Krachinski recorded two points and a rebound.

Wonders said the transition from high school to college has taken some adjusting and playing where his parents were 1,000-point scorers is a dream come true.

“It’s a completely different game and a whole new level,” he said.

“It’s a dream come true for me and I’ve really enjoyed it so far.”

Leaders for Bay include Tyler Willette who recorded 13 points and six rebounds. Tuominen and Joe Gibbs each had 12 points for the Norse.

NMU begins its regular season with a trip to Houghton on Nov. 11 to face Lewis in the first game of the GLIAC/Great Lakes Valley Conference Challenge hosted by Michigan Tech.

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.

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