News Photo by Owen Kinzey Alpena Community College’s Chris Woods puts up a layup during a men’s basketball game against Mid Michigan on Saturday at Park Arena.

ALPENA — The schedule did not get any easier for the Alpena Community College men’s basketball team on Saturday.

The Lumberjacks faced off against the Mid Michigan Lakers and were beaten by a final score of 53-78.

ACC played a very solid first half, but the game slipped away after the offense started to struggle and turnovers became a problem.

Although the final score got out of hand, the Lumberjacks held their own during the first half.

The Lakers’ offense was nearly impossible to stop, but ACC answered back to almost every single shot early on.

Alpena’s James Williams had an outstanding first half, scoring 10 points and saving the Lumberjacks from several scoring droughts.

Iansan Simpson led ACC on the defensive end, blocking two shots and stealing two passes from the Lakers.

While Williams and Simpson were a great duo during the half for ACC, Jayden Sims was almost perfect for Mid Michigan.

Sims finished with 10 points of his own, while also collecting three steals.

With five minutes left in the first, the Lumberjacks were tied at 21-21, but were soon to fall apart. In the remaining time, Mid Michigan outscored ACC 22-3 and went on a relentless run.

By the end of the half, the Lakers had two scorers with double-digit scoring and limited the turnovers to just three.

The late collapse in the half put ACC down 43-24 going into halftime.

Coming out of the break, the Lumberjacks had lots of offense to make up.

The deficit seemed to be too much and Alpena struggled to even keep up with the Lakers.

During the second half, Davarion Mitchell and Williams continued to be the top scorers for ACC.

Mitchell finished the half with 14 points and Williams had 10 as well.

Although both players racked up double-digit points, it wasn’t enough to make the comeback.

Nine of Mid Michigan’s players scored in the second half and helped lead them to the 78-53 victory over the Lumberjacks.

Williams and Mitchell led the way in scoring for ACC. Williams finished with 20 points and Mitchell had 16.

Nick Ellis led the Lakers in scoring with 13 points off the bench. Makhi McCombs was the second leading scorer and he scored 11 points.

ACC takes on North Central Michigan on Wednesday.