The Alpena Community College men’s basketball team entered Saturday in search of its first win on the season.

The Lumberjacks knew they had uphill battle against St. Clair Community College who traveled to Park Arena with a 13-1 record and was ranked No. 13.

Alpena was unable to keep up with the Skippers as St. Clair showed it is as good as its record and defeated the Lumberjacks 107-74.

“St. Clair is obviously No. 13 in the nation for a reason. They are well coached and move the ball around extremely well. We played with them in the second half, but we just dug ourselves too much of a hole early in the game,” ACC coach Mark Jacobs said. “I saw some positive things and I told my guys that we can play with anybody, when we play team ball.”

The Lumberjacks (0-10) fell behind early and were held to just 27 first half points. Alpena struggled to grab rebounds and control the loose balls, which led to multiple chances for St. Clair who took advantage, moving the ball around the floor and making open shots.

“There’s not a lot of room for error when you’re playing a team like that. The first half we turned the ball over too much and tried to do too much individual stuff,” Jacobs said. “The second half was much better and I was really pleased with it. We just have to play together as a team. I feel really good about the way we finished the game.”

After falling behind 53-27 after the first half, Alpena put together a stronger second half, but couldn’t come close to digging out the hole it was in.

The Skippers continued to find ways to score and refused to let Alpena gain any momentum or give them any hope of closing the gap for a possible comeback.

“I think we’re as good as athletes as them, but they are just a phenomenal team. We need some of our guys to step it up,” Jacobs said.

Alpena was led by Logan Guenther who scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Isaac Hogsett finished with 17 points and Tim Hopkins added 14 points.

All but three Skippers cracked the scoring column on the night and St. Clair was paced by Derrick Johnson who poured in a game high 31 points on the night.

Alpena returns to action at 3 p.m. Saturday at Oakland.

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ST. CLAIR (107): M. Hill, 2 1-1 6; J. Miller, 0 6-6 6; T. Hardy, 2 0-2 4; A. Franklin 3 0-0 6; D. Johnson 11 1-2 31; D. Tayler, 4 0-4 8; C. Ballard, 3 1-2 7; D. Vos, 2 1-4 5; T. Baker, 1 0-0 3; O. Duncan, 7 4-7 18; R. Hinkley, 4 2-2 13.

ALPENA (74): L. Guenther, 7 6-6 21; O. Rice 0 4-4 4; T. Hopkins, 5 1-2 14; T. Ross, 3 0-1 7; C. DeCaire, 2 1-3 7; R. Ramsdell, 1 1-2 3; I. Hogsett, 5 5-8 17; T. Smith, 0 1-2 1.