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Lady Lumberjacks win second straight game

ACC hangs on to win another close game, defeating Oakland 59-56

News Photo by James Andersen Alpena Community College’s Kelsey Huffman (20) looks for a teammate to pass to while being guarded by Oakland’s Alisha McCain during a women’s basketball game Saturday at Park Arena.

The Alpena Community College women’s basketball team has been taking games down to the wire as of late.

But close or not, it’s paying off for the Lumberjacks.

ACC took things wire-to-wire again on Saturday and held off Oakland for a 59-56 victory at Park Arena.

The win was ACC’s second straight and came after the Lumberjacks (2-7, 2-3 MCCAA Eastern) rallied from a six-point half deficit and trailed by as many as 11 in the first half.

“It was really, really exciting to me that we actually could finish a game and stayed strong as a team and everyone was on board,” ACC sophomore Kendra Cole said. “It’s (the two wins have) definitely brought us closer and brought our confidence up. We’re beating teams we’ve never beat(en) or haven’t in a long time.”

ACC led 56-49 with 2:14 left, but six points by Cheyenne Sterling cut the lead to one with 36 seconds left. Sterling backed ACC defenders down in the paint for buckets that allowed the Raiders to have a chance in the final minute of play.

The Lumberjacks were sent to the free throw line several times in the time remaining, but struggled at the charity stripe, keeping Oakland’s hopes alive. Oakland got the ball back in the waning seconds and turned it over. After missing two free throws with six seconds left, ACC freshman Morgan Allen sank two shots from the line to ice the game with two seconds left.

ACC led by seven, 52-45, with 3:52 left, but the Raiders cut the lead to three with 2:57 remaining after Marisa Wade hit two free throws and Khadijah Lucas drained a three-pointer. ACC took a seven-point lead before Oakland’s last late run.

Despite being winless on the season, the Raiders gave ACC everything they had even with a roster of seven players. Oakland led for most of the first half and led by 11 before halftime, taking advantage of some ACC misses and fortuitous bounces, not to mention solid rebounding. The Raiders were also accurate at the line, going 17-for-24.

It wasn’t until Brooke Ellis drained a triple for ACC midway through the third quarter that Oakland gave up the lead for good.

“They’re pretty scrappy, they moved the ball pretty quick and they were fast,” Cole said of the Raiders.

Ellis’ trey sparked a brief run by the Lumberjacks and they led 41-36 after three quarters. After rushing shots and struggling on the boards, Alpena converted more offensive chances and pushed its lead to double digits in the fourth quarter.

“It (the message) was pretty much just our coach trying to tell us to play more as a team and to get back to basics,” Cole said of the team’s halftime meeting. “We were trying to get ahead of ourselves when we needed to take a step back, calm down and bring ourselves together and play the basketball game we know how to play.”

Cole led ACC with 18 points and Anne Archambeau, Rachael Barkley and Hannah Nostrandt each added eight.

Wade paced Oakland with 18 points and Sterling added 16.

Alpena returns to action at Mott on Saturday.

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ALPENA (59): K. Cole 7 3-4 18; A. Archambeau 4 0-0 8; R. Barkley 3 2-6 8; K. Hunt 2 1-2 5; H. Nostrandt 3 0-0 8; A. Gamble 1 0-0 2; A. Smith 1 0-0 2; M. Allen 0 3-6 3; B. Ellis 1 0-0 3; K. Huffman 0 2-6 2.

OAKLAND (56): K. Lucas 3 2-2 9; C. Sterling 7 2-4 16; M. Wade 5 7-7 18; S. Gordon 1 0-0 3; A. Jordan 1 5-9 7; A. McCain 1 1-2 3.

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