Bested by the Bears at home
Lumberjacks fall to Mott in McCourt’s final home game
Monday night marked the end of an era as Alpena Community College head coach Frank McCourt coached his final home game at Park Arena.
Before the game, Mott Community College head coach Steve Schmidt awarded McCourt a small trophy in honor of his 50 years of coaching, but after that it was all business as the Bears were able to outlast Alpena and spoil the Lumberjacks home finale by defeating ACC by a final score of 82-66.
“I thought we played well and I think if we would have played as well as we did tonight against Mott all year, we would have had a much better season. We played hard right from the get go,” McCourt said.
It was a much different game than the last time these two teams met exactly a month ago when the Bears cruised to a 33 point victory.
Alpena was inspired from the opening tip and did all it could to send its coach out on a winning note in his final home game.
The Lumberjacks matched Mott point for point throughout a back-and-forth first half that featured seven lead changes and five ties.
ACC held a three point lead midway through the half, but surrendered its lead as the Bears went on a 7-0 run to take a four point lead with under eight minutes to play.
The Lumberjacks continued to battle and tied the game at 33 when Trenton LaVergne nailed a three with under two minutes to play.
Mott closed the first half by scoring the final six points to take a 42-36 lead into the break.
ACC started the second half slow and the Bears took advantage to opening up the second half scoring 19 of the first 26 points to take an 18 point lead.
“We struggled a little bit at the start of the second half and I talked to the guys at halftime and said the game will probably get decided in the first few minutes of the second half and it turns out that’s what happened,” McCourt said.
Despite trailing by 18, the Lumberjacks refused to lay down and quit as they did everything they could to chip away at Mott’s lead and get back into the game.
Alpena was able to find its stroke from beyond the three point line as it hit several key shots from distance late in the game and back to back three’s from Tim Hopkins and Michael Stuart, along with a basket from LaVergne helped ACC cut the lead to 72-66 with four minutes to play.
Unfortunately for the Lumberjacks, it was as close as they would get the rest of the night as Mott closed the game in a big way by scoring the final 10 points of the game to spoil Alpena’s home finale.
ACC had no answer for Mott’s Marcus Cole who poured in a game high 34 points in the win. Cole was the only Bear to score double digits as Mott got eight points apiece from Sean Corcoran, Shawn Pardee and Austin Walker.
The Lumberjacks were led by LaVergne who ended his final game at Park Arena with a team high 23 points. Hopkins added 16 and Stuart chipped in with nine points in the losing effort.
Alpena falls to 1-19 overall on the year and 0-15 in conference play. The Lumberjacks will end the season tomorrow when they travel to Schoolcraft in what will be McCourt’s final game as coach.
After the game, a quiet McCourt was proud of the way his team played and looks forward to tomorrow’s final game.
“You know what, it was time. It is time for me to step aside and let someone else coach this program,” McCourt said. “It’s going to be big game for us. We don’t have class this week so we’ll be able to get a little extra practice in and get ready to go down to Schoolcraft and win a ball game.”
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MOTT (82): A. Walker, 3 0-0 8; M. Cole, 13 8-12 34; R. McCalley, 2 1-2 5; D. Wilson, 3 3-4 9; S. Pardee, 3 0-0 8; D. Palmer, 0 2-5 2; L. Taborn, 2 0-0 4; D. Weis, 2 0-0 4; S. Corcoran, 4 0-0 8.
ALPENA (66): K. Adams, 2 0-0 3; T. LaVergne, 8 4-4 23; T. Hopkins, 6 2-2 16; M. Stuart, 3 0-0 9; D. Ross, 1 0-0 2; J. Pierrelus, 3 1-2 7; D. Middleton, 3 0-1 6.