News

By Ryan Schlehuber, MCC Sportswriter

Makenna Rautio has been making the big shots for the Montcalm Community College Centurions women’s basketball team practically all season, and she was hoping she had another against the Alpena Community College Lumberjacks Saturday, Feb. 15. 

But the Big Rapids freshman guard’s last-second, desperation three-point shot to tie the game fell short, and the Centurions were handed a 59-56 road loss. 

“The last shot I took was pretty rushed with two seconds left on the clock,” said Rautio, who has been the team’s leading scorer for the past nine games. “The plan was to hit me with a pass and then get it back to (freshman guard Emily) Putnam. If there wasn’t enough time, then I was to get a shot up, which is what I had to end up doing.” 

The Centurions (2-8 MCCAA Northern, 3-16 overall) came into the game looking for a sweep, having beaten the Lumberjacks (2-9 MCCAA Northern, 3-16 overall) on their home court, 50-35, Jan. 18. And with 1:15 to go in the game, freshman center Maia Sexton (Sidney, Mich.) made a free throw to give MCC a 56-53 lead. 

Alpena’s Saige Flaugher then hit a jump shot to pull the Lumberjacks within one. Neither team would score until MCC freshman Madi Longoria (Wyoming, Mich.) fouled Jena Wambold with 25 seconds to go. Wambold sank both free throws to give Alpena a 57-56 lead. 

With 18 seconds left, Wambold made a key steal, which she was then immediately fouled by MCC freshman guard Emily Putnam (Sheridan, Mich.). Wambold made one of two free throws to put the Lumberjacks up 58-56 with 14 seconds left. 

On MCC’s next possession, Rautio’s three-point shot, with eight seconds left, missed and went out of bounds. MCC immediately fouled Wambold as she got the inbound pass. She missed the first free throw but sank the other.  

MCC called a timeout with three seconds left, which set up the last-second shot for Rautio to try to tie the game. 

The two teams played neck-and-neck throughout the game, with 14 lead changes and 11 ties. Alpena took its largest lead of the game, four minutes before halftime, with Flaugher hitting back-to-back free throws to make it 24-15, Alpena. In the next three minutes, however, MCC cut the lead to one, 26-25, on a Putnam free throw. 

Perhaps the biggest key to Alpena’s win was the turnover ratio, which the Lumberjacks forced 23 MCC turnovers to their 15. Alpena was able to turn in 22 points with those MCC turnovers. The Centurions were only able to create nine points off the Lumberjacks’ turnovers. 

“Turnovers impacted the game tremendously in my opinion,” Rautio said. 

With four regular season games to go, Rautio said limiting turnovers is something her team has to key on if it wants to earn more wins to finish out the season. 

“We have to cut down turnovers. We are focusing on trying to settle down and not force things,” she said. “A lot of our turnovers come from trying to get the ball into somewhere that might have been open a second ago but wasn’t as soon as we tried to get the ball there.” 

Rautio finished with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Putnam had 16 points and eight rebounds, and Sexton had 12 points and nine rebounds for MCC. 

Flaugher finished with 26 points and Wambold had 14 for Alpena. 

UP NEXT: The Centurions will travel to Muskegon Community College Monday, Feb. 17 to take on the Jayhawks (8-2 MCCAA Northern, 18-5 overall) for the second time in five days. Tip-off is 5:30 p.m. Muskegon took the first game with an 82-53 win. Muskegon, along with Northern Division leader Mid Michigan College and Bay College, have clinched a spot in the MCCAA postseason tournament.