GRAND RAPIDS — The Alpena Community College women’s basketball team nearly put together an incredible comeback on Friday, but in the end, suffered a tough 64-57 loss to Grand Rapids Community College at Aquinas College.

The Lumberjacks trailed by 19 in the third quarter, but Alpena stormed back and cut the lead to three with a minute left, but were unable to get shots to fall late and complete the comeback as Grand Rapids iced the game with free throws late.

“I thought we played well and it really shows a lot about the girls to battle back from being down so much late in the game,” ACC coach Bobby Allen said. “My girls never gave up, played hard the entire night and I’m just really proud of them.”

Taylor Livingston paced the Lumberjacks scoring a team high 16 points. Jasmyn Schultz also scored in double-figures with 10 points and Shelby Seaver added six points and ripped down 15 rebounds.

In just their second game of the young season, the Lumberjacks have experienced two completely different situations.

Alpena led for nearly half of their season opener and surrendered a lead late and were unable to finish, but on Friday, it was the Lumberjacks who fell behind early and were forced to battle from behind and nearly completed a comeback despite being down almost 20 points late in the third quarter.

“The girls are still getting familiar with each other and playing alongside one another. We are a young team and we have a lot of freshman that haven’t played with each other before, but we’re coming along and continuing to learn how to play together and figuring out what works and what doesn’t,” Allen said. “I definitely believe tonight was a step in the right direction because it was excellent what they were able to do in just our second game of the season.”

The Alpena men also were on the receiving end of a defeat as they lost to the Raiders by a final score of 115-85.

“The score didn’t represent how the game went,” ACC coach Mark Jacobs said. “We ran into another hot team that couldn’t miss. We looked much better than our first game and we have huge upside.”

Five Lumberjacks scored in double-digits and Tim Hopkins led the way with a team high 18 points. Oliver Rice scored 17, Jordan Baker and Logan Guenther each finished with 14 points apiece and Isaac Hogsett added 12 points. Cam DeCaire chipped in with six points and eight rebounds in the losing effort.

Alpena will have another lengthy break before getting back on the court when both teams return home to Park Arena to host Grand Rapids on December 1.