News Photo by Owen Kinzey Alpena Community College’s Allie DeRocher, right, prepares to shoot during the third quarter of a women’s basketball game on Wednesday at Park Arena.

ALPENA — The Alpena Community College women’s basketball team played another exciting and close game on Wednesday. The Lumberjacks took on Bay College and finished off an incredible comeback win.

The final score of the game was 60-53 and ACC made a few slight defensive adjustments at halftime that propelled it to the win.

“When we go to your press, our players tend to hustle a lot more. We also tend to be more aggressive shooters and play better on offense,” ACC coach Cindy DeRocher said. “Our best decision was switching to the press because it allowed us to score points off of our defense.”

Bay College got on the scoresheet early, winning the jump ball leading to a wide-open mid-range shot from Claire van Ginhoven.

ACC’s Allie DeRocher was quick to answer back with an amazing contested finish at the rim.

ACC maintained a lead due to its stifling defense along with a consistent offense.

Leading the Lumberjacks on defense was Allie Urlaub. With 3:39 left in the first quarter, Urlaub recorded a steal, and on the very next possession, she received credit for a block.

By the end of the first quarter, the Lumberjacks had a 14-12 lead over the Norse.

Although ACC had success in the first quarter, the second quarter did not have the same outcome.

The Lumberjacks fell behind after the consistent offense started to fade. Troubles started when Alpena began to turn the ball over while not being able to get an open shot on offense.

This led to several forced shots and many opportunities for the Norse to score on the fastbreak.

Going into halftime ACC trailed 32-25, but the Lumberjacks were not done fighting yet.

Coming out of the break, DeRocher decided to make some changes on defense.

Alpena started full-court pressing and playing a much more aggressive style of basketball.

With this change, ACC put Bay in numerous uncomfortable situations and even took a 42-41 lead.

Jade Schultz led the quarter in scoring by being a dominant player down in the post. Schultz ended up with double-digit points in the quarter and was Alpena’s leading scorer overall.

By the end of the third, the Lumberjacks had a 44-43 lead.

The remarkable array of defense continued for Alpena during the final quarter. The Lumberjacks seemed to capitalize on every turnover it forced, leading to many wide-open layups.

DeRocher was a spark plug for ACC on defense as she knocked out three steals and helped Alpena finish off the win.

In the end, the Lumberjacks took the 60-53 win over the Norse.

“At halftime, our players knew they were better than the way they were playing. We knew we could compete and we just needed to go out there and prove it,” DeRocher said.

Leading ACC in scoring was Schultz with 31 points and Allie DeRocher had 11.

Bay College’s leading scorer was Alyssa Cretton with 20 points. Tianna Taylor and Emma Rutter both finished with six points each.

ACC plays Mid Michigan on Saturday.