The Albert Lea Tigers B-squad girls&8217; basketball team recently completed a successful season on the hardwood. It finished with a record of 14-9 with three of those losses coming to junior varsity teams.

The year started with a 26-point drubbing of New Ulm. The New Ulm game would be the only action of the year for sophomore Morgan Stadheim before she was moved up to the varsity level.

Losing a key player from its roster didn&8217;t stop the rest of the team from moving ahead. The Tigers put up eight more wins to start the season with a 9-0 record. Three wins that weren&8217;t decided until the final horn were a part of that winning streak.

A three-game stretch of games before the Christmas break looked like a difficult task going in. The results showed just how much improvement the girls had made in the past year.

The first game was against a Northfield team that had pinned a 43-9 loss on them the year before. This year the Tigers turned the tables with a come-from-behind two-point win. Next up was Owatonna who had hung two lopsided losses on them last year as freshmen. Again the girls were able to turn around the results and played perhaps their best 32 minutes of the season to knock off the Huskies on their home court.

The final game before the Christmas break was against another team that had beaten them twice the year before in the neighboring rival Austin Packers. The girls came back from deficits in both halves, took the lead at the free throw in the final seconds and knocked off the Packers by a single point.

Another win over Faribault started the new year before New Prague came to town with its JV team and became the first team to pin a loss on the Tigers. After this game freshman Alyssa Sager would also join the varsity roster for two halves of playing time, leaving her available to the B-squad for one half each night. While dealing with some illness, injuries, and missing two key players from the roster that started the season you might expect some teams to fold. This group wasn&8217;t one of those teams.

Although wins became less frequent through the rest of the year, the team remained competitive. Other highlights that followed included another come-from-behind win against Austin, a Parents&8217; Night defeat of Mankato East and two wins over Winona.

The Austin game again wasn&8217;t decided until the last shot. The result was a two point win after coming back from a 10-point second half deficit in front of the Packers&8217; home crowd. The two wins over Winona included allowing a season-low 14 points in the first game and scoring a season-high 66 points in the second.

Several factors can be attributed to the team success this year. One would have to be its attitude. The Tigers worked hard each time they stepped on the floor. Never a day did they just go through the motions. They would not quit on each other.

Eleven of the team&8217;s wins this year were come from behind. Balance and depth was also a key. Eight players reached double figures in scoring during the year with seven different girls leading the scoring effort on a given night. The girls seemed to take turns in making key plays that needed to be made when the game was on the line.

Another huge factor in the season was that the Tigers had great team chemistry both on and off the court. Each girl played her role and was supportive of her teammates. There was always somebody there to pick up for the player that was having an off night.

The team roster included sophomores Katelyn Anderson, Erika Blickenderfer, Ally Herbst, Lana Howe, Brittany Kelly, Mikaela Pierson, Toni Roberts and Sarah Wenum. Freshmen on the roster were Kristen Enger and Alyssa Sager. Jenna Sager was the team manager. Pierson and Wenum served as team captains.

Several of these names will be heard from as they reach the varsity level. They will help to keep the Albert Lea girls&8217; basketball program on the map.