News Photo by James Andersen Alpena's Kailey Hunt, right, scores during a women's basketball game on Wednesday at Park Arena. Defending her on the play is Schoolcraft's Phoenix Douthat.

The Alpena Community College women’s basketball team has played well offensively during a recent winning streak.

But two many cold spells doomed the Lumberjacks chances to win on Wednesday and they saw a three-game winning streak come to an end with a 67-43 loss to Schoolcraft at Park Arena.

The Lumberjacks (3-8, 3-4 MCCAA Eastern) stayed within striking distance for most of the first half. But once the second half began, ACC struggled to keep up with the Ocelots, who have won six of their last seven games.

“Alpena’s a really good shooting team. Number 50 (Kendra Cole) in the post I knew was going to give us trouble, so we were focusing on that Monday and Tuesday in practice,” Schoolcraft coach Kara Kinzer said. “Defense was a big thing for us tonight.”

Schoolcraft led 30-20 at halftime, but ACC but cut the lead to six with two quick buckets from Cole. Unfortunately ACC was held to just one field goal for the remainder of the third quarter and picked up five more points on free throws. The Lumberjacks were only outscored 14-11 in the third quarter, but couldn’t do much to close the halftime gap.

Schoolcraft iced the game for good with a 10-1 run to start the fourth quarter.

“It took us a little bit to warm up. We have difficulty taking care of the ball most games; I think we’re averaging 20 turnovers, so when we make those turnovers it’s hard for us to score baskets,” Kinzer said. As long as we’re taking care of the ball, we’ll put the ball in the net.

Rainy McCune led Schoolcraft with 16 points and was one of three Ocelots in double figures. Victoria Robinson added 15 and Riana Willams chipped in with 12.

Sparking ACC off the bench, Cole led the Lumberjacks with 17 points and all but one ACC player contributed at least one point. Cole was one of ACC most consistent players and gave Schoolcraft trouble in the paint.

“She gave us a lot of trouble. I didn’t expect her to be that strong, but we’ll be working on that next time around,” Kinzer said.

The Lumberjacks led in the game’s opening minutes, but an 11-0 run late in the first quarter gave the Ocelots the lead for good. A pair of buckets from Cole cut the lead to 14-10 after one quarter, but ACC was never able to challenge for the lead again.

A free throw from Brooke Ellis in the opening minute of the second quarter made it 14-11, but that was as close as the Lumberjacks got.

ACC hosts Delta at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.

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SCHOOLCRAFT (67): J. Smith 2 0-0 4; R. Williams 3 5-7 12; P. Douthat 2 4-5 8; A. Pearson 3 3-3 9; T. Parker 1 0-0 3; R. McCune 5-3-4 16; V. Robinson 6 3-8 15.

ALPENA (43): A. Smith 1 0-0 2; M. Allen 1 3-4 5; K. Hunt 3 0-0 6; K. Cole 6 5-5 17; B. Ellis 0 1-2 1; R. Barkley 1 2-6 4; H. Nostrandt 1 0-0 3; A. Gamble 0 2-2 2; K. Huffman 0 1-1 1; A. Archambeau 1 0-0 2.

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.