By Mike Simmons, staff writer

One night after winning the first game of its season and earning a spot in the championship game of the Tiger Classic, the Albert Lea boys&8217; basketball team fell to Class AA North Branch (3-4) and settled for second place.

The Tigers (1-6) spotted the Vikings nine points in the first two minutes of the game, but while Albert Lea was able to generate some offense of its own, the Tigers were unable to overcome the slow start and fell 51-42.

&8220;The first couple of minutes were kind of the story of the game,&8221; said Albert Lea coach Chad Feikema. &8220;I felt like we out played them in

the second half though, which has been what we have done all season. But we shot ourselves in the foot with seven turnovers in our first eight possessions and never recovered.&8221;

It didn&8217;t take Albert Lea long to stop the bleeding as it used a swarming defense to get back in the game and trailed 14-9 just eight minutes after being behind 9-0. But throughout the first half this game was one of scoring runs and droughts and the visiting Vikings went at it again and pushed their advantage to 11 at 22-11 before finishing the half solidly on top, 29-15.

The Tigers came out of the locker room after the half and used their deep bench to slowly whittle away at the lead, which at one point was 35-23. A Jared Matson basket with 10:30 remaining closed the gap to just six at 38-32.

Trailing 46-35 two minutes later, Jace DeBoer gave the Tigers one last glimmer of hope when he hit consecutive jumpers to pull Albert Lea to within seven. But with the Tigers having to resort to sending North Branch to the charity stripe in the closing minutes, that was as close as Albert Lea would get before falling.

&8220;I just told the guys after the game that we have a lot of things going in the right direction,&8221; Feikema said. &8220;We got our first win [Thursday], which is a big step and we have some individual players who have gained more confidence. So we are improving, we just have to be patient.&8221;

The Tigers have a week off for the new year and will travel to face Faribault on Friday.