News Photo by James Andersen Alpena forward Jade Schultz (11) fights for a rebound with Petoskey’s Sydney Mann, left and Elizabeth Pollion during the first half of a girls basketball game on Friday at Alpena High School.

Erin Andrews knows what kind of difference maker Jade Schultz can be on the basketball court and she told Schultz before Friday’s contest she was going to have a good game.

The senior forward rewarded her coach’s faith and proved to be quite the leader for Alpena.

Schultz scored 20 points and was a force in the paint all night to help the Wildcats defeated the Northmen 54-30 at Alpena High School.

The win put Alpena (5-4, 2-2 Big North Conference) over the .500 mark overall and was a welcome victory after last week’s struggles in Cadillac.

Schultz scored Alpena first basket on a feed inside and kept gaining momentum from there. She collected eight points by the end of the first quarter, all in the paint, and proved hard for Petoskey to stop the rest of the night.

It was exactly the kind of performance Andrews was hoping to see Schultz deliver.

“I told her before we started she should have a good game tonight,” Andrews said. “She did have one of the those leadership kind of games. She stepped up tonight, had a great game like I knew she would.”

Allison Urlaub added 11 points off the bench for the Wildcats and eight different Alpena players scored in the win.

Alpena led 13-9 after one quarter, but pulled away from Petoskey a few minutes before halftime thanks to increased defensive pressure. A quick 7-2 run, which included a pair of converted scoring attempts on steals took Alpena’s lead from 20-13 to 25-14, putting the Northmen in a hole they couldn’t climb out of.

“We worked really hard on our defense this week and I think that showed. I wanted them to play up and a little bit closer to them and be in their face,” Andrews said. “Nothing should be easy when they’re trying to make an inbounds pass or getting started in their offense.”

The Northmen cut the lead to 11 two different times in the third quarter, but Alpena kept up the pressure defensively and poured in enough offense to keep the Northmen at bay.

A basket from Urlaub and a pair of buckets in the paint from Schultz gave Alpena a 6-0 to end the third quarter and a 38-20 after 24 minutes.

Petoskey had chances to cut the lead to single digits in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t hit a bucket when it needed to. With about 5:30 left, Petoskey had a sequence where it missed an initial shot, got the rebound three times and missed all three subsequent shots. Ultimately, there were too many offensively lapses for Petoskey to challenge for the lead.

Alpena plays at Tawas on Tuesday and will return home Friday to host Traverse City Central.

Petoskey’s JV team defeated Alpena 40-21. Megan Dubie led Alpena with eight points and Meeghan Tessmer had four.

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BOX SCORE: Field Goals Made/Free Throws Made/Free Throws Attempted/Total Points

ALPENA (54): J. Schultz 10 0-3 20; E. Clarke 2 0-0 6; A. DeRocher 1 0-0 2; A. Urlaub 4 2-2 11; A. Trelfa 1 2-2 4; J. Leck 1 2-2 4; A. Young 1 1-2 3; A. Jones 2 0-0 4.

PETOSKEY (30): S. Mann 2 0-0 5; H. Flynn 3 4-6 10; Ke. Bromley 2 0-0 4; Ka. Bromley 1 0-0 2; E. Pollion 2 1-2 5; J. Karr 1 2-2 4.