Albert Lea girls fall to Red Wing in first round of playoffs
Published 8:42 am Thursday, March 5, 2009
The same problems that have plagued the Albert Lea girls’ basketball team all season, reared their head once again in the first round of the Section 1AAA playoffs Wednesday in Red Wing.
The No. 6 seed Tigers (9-18 overall) fell 68-59 to the No. 3 seed Wingers as turnovers and Red Wing offensive rebounds piled up against Albert Lea.
The Tigers committed 24 turnovers in the game and gave up 24 offensive rebounds which led to too many second chance points for the Wingers.
“We just turned the ball over way too much, but we gave up way too many offensive rebounds,” said Albert Lea head coach Sean Gillam.
The Tigers shot 33 percent from the field while the Wingers shot 29 percent, but there was a big disparity in shot attempts. Albert Lea attempted 42 shots in the game, but Red Wing, because of its offensive rebounding, had 75 shots in the game.
“The problem was we gave them too many possessions,” Gillam said.
Despite the letdown on the glass, the Tigers still found themselves in the game late. Albert Lea trailed by one with 2 minutes to go in the game, but the Wingers closed out the game strong for the nine-point win.
Abbey Arends led the Tigers with 19 points and 10 rebounds on the night and four others scored in double figures for Albert Lea, but there wasn’t any bench scoring for the team.
Alyssa Sager finished with 13 points while Morgan Stadheim and Katie Schou each had 10 points in the game.
Red Wing was led by Tesha Buck, who scored 25 points in the game.
The Tigers will lose four seniors from this year’s squad, including two starters in Heather Greibrok and Katie Schou.