Photo by Josh Jambor. Alpena guard Bella Dickens drives to the basket in the second quarter of its game against Traverse City Central.

ALPENA – The Alpena Wildcats girl’s basketball team lost to Traverse City Central 69-31 on Thursday.

Alpena guard Emma Darga got the offense going for the Wildcats early in the game with a tough put back off the rebound.

On the following offensive possession Darga connected from deep for the three. Darga then found Emma Kinsel cutting to the hoop, she scored the basket, drew the foul, and connected on the free throw.

The perimeter shooting from TC Central presented a problem from the opening tip however and the score at the end of the first half was 26-17 with TC Central out in front.

The iron was unkind for Alpena in the third quarter as Alpena’s shots didn’t accurately find their mark, while TC Central couldn’t seem to miss. The Wildcats were outscored 27-2 in the third quarter and the Trojans pulled away.

Alpena Head Coach Mark Toppi his team never gave up and competed for much of the contest against a solid opponent.

“I love that we competed for two periods and played hard all game,” Toppi said.

The Wildcats had a game plan to prevent TC Central from getting close to the basket for easy shots, but ultimately, Central was too hard to hold off.

“our goal was to take away their inside game which I thought we did a good job,” Toppi said. “We will watch film this afternoon and prepare for the next one,”

Kinsel led all Alpena scorers with nine points.

Next week, the Wildcats host the Sault Area Blue Devils, on Wednesday with a 7 p.m. tipoff.