News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena Community College freshman Brooke Jones (30) tries to drive to the basket while being defended during the third quarter of a women’s junior college basketball game against Mid Michigan Community College on Tuesday at Park Arena.

As undersized as the Alpena Community College women’s basketball team is, missing a few key post players on Tuesday only made a game against Mid Michigan Community College that much more challenging.

The Lumberjacks have been without Shelby Seaver all season and were missing Dakota Prevo on Tuesday. The absence of the teams’ top two post players hurt the Lumberjacks as they were held to their lowest total of the season and fell by a score of 63-39 to the Lakers at Park Arena.

Mid Michigan got off to a blazing start as the opened the game scoring 13 of the first 15 points.

Despite falling behind, the Lumberjacks caught fire late in the opening quarter as they finished the first with eight unanswered points which included back-to-back triples from Karah Dunson and Brooke Nguyen. Alpena cut the lead to 13-10 after one.

The momentum quickly changed as the Lumberjacks cooled down in a big way as Mid Michigan scored the first 10 points of the second quarter to take a double digit lead.

Alpena was held scoreless for just over five and half minutes before Emma Jore got a shot to fall with 4:25 left in the second.

The Lumberjacks were outscored 14-5 in the quarter as Jore was responsible for all of the Lumberjacks’ offense in the quarter as she scored all five of her points in the second quarter after knocking down a three late in the first half to cut the lead single digits at 24-15. The Lakers scored the final three in the quarter to take a 27-15 lead into the half and Alpena was unable to cut the lead to single digits the rest of the night.

The Lakers continued to feast on Alpena’s lack of size and Mid Michigan’s height advantage allowed them to cash in on the opportunities they were able to earn and turned them into easy buckets.

The Lakers blew the game open in the third as they took a 44-25 lead heading into the fourth quarter and continued to pour it on the shorthanded Lumberjacks. Alpena lost another starter late in the game as Nguyen left with an ankle injury.

Mid Michigan was led by Amelia McNutt who scored a game high 15 points. Steffi Kracko finished with 13 points and Kaitlyn Ray added 11 points.

Nguyen scored a team high nine points for Alpena before leaving the game in the fourth due to injury. Jore finished with five points and 10 rebounds and Dunson chipped in with five points. All nine Lumberjacks that entered the game, cracked the scoring column, but it wasn’t enough as Alpena dropped its final home game of the year.

The Lumberjacks wrap up 2019 on Saturday when they travel to Muskegon Community College.

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Box Score: Field goals made/Free throws made/Free throws attempted/Total Points

Mid Michigan (63): A. McNutt, 4 4-5 15; T. Wallace, 1 0-0 2; K. Crawford, 0 1-2 1; K. Myers, 2 0-0 5; K. Ray, 3 5-9 11; S. Peplinski, 2 1-2 6; E. Johnson, 1 0-0 3; S. Kracko, 4 3-6 13; J. Peplinski, 2 3-4 7.

Alpena (39): B. Nguyen, 4 0-0 9; M. Girard, 1 0-0 3; L. Black, 2 0-0 4; K. Fischer, 1 2-2 4; K. Feighner, 1 2-2 4; E. Jore, 2 0-0 5; B. Jones, 0 1-2 1; K. Dunson, 2 0-0 5; A. Larsen, 2 0-0 4.