News Photo by Owen Kinzey Alpena’s Avery Dubey, right, takes a shot during the third quarter of a girls basketball district playoff game on Monday at Alpena High School.

ALPENA — After getting matched up with potentially the best team in the district, the Alpena High girls basketball team had its work cut out for it.

On Monday, the Wildcats played Sault Ste. Marie for its district opener and were ultimately eliminated from the playoffs by a final score of 42-23.

Sault’s height, athleticism, and ability to shoot the three led it to victory over Alpena.

“Defensively we played so hard. I’m super happy with how hard we rebounded and how much intensity we played with. We left it all out on the court and that’s all I can ask” Alpena coach Laura Dubey said.

The Blue Devils took an early momentum and got off to an excellent start with the first basket from Claire Erickson. This momentum led into a 6-0 run that was ended with a basket from Kiera Prue.

After Sault finished its run, Alpena (8-15) went on a run of its own. This time it was a 7-0 run led by back-to-back mid range jump shots from Reaghan Fitzpatrick and a three from Reese Wisniewski.

Although the game was tied at 8-8, turning the ball over was a huge problem for the Wildcats during the first quarter.

Going into the second, the Blue Devils took the lead and never looked back. A 12-0 run to start the quarter was dominated offensively by Hannah Maurer and Erickson. Even though Sault’s offense was outstanding, its defense was better.

Alpena was held to zero points during the quarter until Avery Dubey knocked down a pair of free throws which ended the phenomenal run by Sault.

Turnovers continued to be a problem for Alpena which let the Blue Devils take a 21-11 lead going into halftime.

Coming out of the half, Dubey and the Wildcats came out hot. A three from Dubey helped the offense start to get going, but it was too little too late.

The Blue Devils defense strengthened up which stopped Alpena from scoring for majority of the third quarter

By the end of the third, Alpena had fallen into an even bigger 33-19 deficit.

The start of the fourth quarter was great again for the Wildcats. Dubey scored another four points early, but she was the only player capable of scoring.

Once Dubey was prevented from scoring, all Sault had to do was dribble the clock out to complete the 42-23 win.

“We have a young team as we’re only graduating two seniors. I almost get my entire team back, so I have big plans and high expectations going into next year. I’m looking forward to coming back next year and showing the Big North what we have to offer,” Dubey said.

Alpena’s leading scorer on the night was Dubey finishing with 10 points. Prue and Fitzpatrick were the Wildcats second-leading scorers both ending with four points.

The Blue Devils were led offensively by Erickson and Mackenzie Bell. Erickson had 19 points and Bell completed the game with 10 points.