News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena senior Allie DeRocher (2) drives to the basket and creates contact on a shot while being defended by Alcona’s Rachel Layton (34) and Liz Henderson (40) during the second quarter of a girls basketball game on Monday at Alpena High School.

ALPENA — Emotions always run high on Senior Night, but the Alpena High girls basketball team’s senior trio did not let emotions interfere with their final home game of the regular season.

Allie DeRocher, Elyse Clarke and Jade Gray combined to outscore Alcona (10-3) by themselves, pouring in 34 combined points in Alpena’s 49-33 win over the Tigers on Monday.

“This was my first senior class to start as freshmen in the program with me. They’ve been really good leaders and it was nice to see them all play well tonight,” Alpena coach Erin Andrews said.

Both teams played a back-and-forth first half that featured four ties and five lead changes before Alpena found some rhythm late in the second quarter, scoring eight unanswered points to take a 21-14 lead.

The Wildcats (5-9) took advantage of their opportunities from the charity stripe, scoring 11 of their 21 points in the first half from the free-throw line.

Alpena held a 21-18 lead at the break, thanks to a big first half from DeRocher, who scored 13 of her game-high 22 points and went 11-of-13 from the stripe.

“Allie (DeRocher) has been playing well lately and it was nice to see Elly (Clarke) hit a couple shots and Jade did a great job rebounding tonight. They really led the way for us tonight and it was good to see,” Andrews said.

After a tight first half of basketball, the Wildcats made adjustments, scored the first six points of the third quarter to take a nine point lead and never looked back. They outscored the Tigers 13-4 in the quarter to take a comfortable 12-point lead into the fourth.

“We got off to a slow start in the first half and just couldn’t grab any kind of momentum,” Andrews said. “We switched around our diamond press at the half and we were able to get steals out of the press and that led to points.”

Gray was a force on the boards and battled with one of the area’s top post players in Alcona’s Liz Henderson who scored a team high 11 points. She had to earn all of those points as Gray was up to the challenge and put together her best game as a Wildcat.

Clarke knocked down a pair of triples to begin the fourth quarter and helped the Wildcats extend the lead and coast to an impressive win over a talented Tigers team.

“Alcona is a good team and this was a good win for us tonight. This a good time for us to start playing our best before the postseason begins,” Andrews said. “We know that we can beat anyone on any given night.”

The Wildcats will wrap up their regular season with another test as they travel to Cadillac to take on the top team in the Big North Conference Tuesday.

The Alpena JV team also earned a victory over Alcona, defeating the Tigers 40-24.

The Wildcats were paced by Emily Kalisch who poured in a game high 15 points. Maddie Linton added eight points and Meeghan Tessmer finished with six points.

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

ALPENA (49): A. DeRocher, 5 11-15 22; A. Urlaub, 1 0-0 2; J. Gray, 1 2-4 4; J. Leeck, 3 3-5 9; R. Wisniewski, 1 0-2 2; A. Dubey, 1 0-0 2; E. Clarke, 2 2-2 8.

ALCONA (33): L. Bilbey, 1 0-5 2; A. Loyer, 1 0-0 2; K. Sharboneau, 2 0-0 4; R. Layton, 2 0-0 4; L. Henderson, 3 5-9 11; K. Hansen, 3 2-2 8.