ROCHESTER – With Tyler Young out of their lineup and 7-foot Mike Kinsella in the lineup for Rochester John Marshall, it looked like it could be a long night for the Albert Lea Tigers.

Wednesday, February 06, 2002

ROCHESTER – With Tyler Young out of their lineup and 7-foot Mike Kinsella in the lineup for Rochester John Marshall, it looked like it could be a long night for the Albert Lea Tigers.

It was.

Albert Lea struggled Tuesday night while falling 65-45 in a Big Nine boys’ basketball game at Rochester.

The Rockets, who improved to 14-3 overall and 11-1 in the conference, led from the start. It was 16-8, 31-13 and 49-23 at the breaks.

Young, a junior forward and one of the Tigers’ top players, was out with a shoulder injury sustained in last Thursday’s game against Mankato West. But it’s unlikely he could have made the difference on this night, according to Tigers coach Matt Addington.

&uot;We didn’t do anything to attack them tonight, we didn’t rebound, we didn’t get after loose balls,&uot; said a disappointed Addington. &uot;It was really a pretty poor effort for three and a half quarters.&uot;

Kinsella led the Rockets with 23 points and helped a defense that held the Tigers to only 12 shots from inside the three-point circle. Albert Lea was 15-for-35 overall from the floor, 9-for-23 on three-pointers, and 6-for-10 on free throws. The outsized Tigers were outrebounded 28-11. Both teams had 16 turnovers.

Ben Woodside led the Tigers with 11 points. Corey Bowman and Kyle Schrad scored six apiece.

The loss evened the Tigers’ record at 8-8 overall and 6-6 in the Big Nine.

&uot;We need to hold each other more accountable to do the things we need to do in order to win,&uot; said Addington. &uot;There’s no magic coaching formula. We just need to pull together as a group, draw the best out of each other if we want to continue to play well.&uot;

The Tigers host Faribault Friday.