Hayfield’s half-court defense caused turnovers that led to the Albert Lea girls’ basketball team to fall hard Monday night during the 2009 Tiger Classic.

Hayfield (9-0), ranked No. 4 in Class 2A, took a double-digit lead in the first four minutes and kept it through the game. The Vikings won 60-41 and advance to play Class 2A Concordia Academy at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday for the championship for the four-team tourney.

The Class 3A Tigers (3-4) play Class 2A Cannon Falls in the consolation game at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Albert Lea coach Sean Gilliam credited Hayfield’s run-and-jump defense for stopping his team. He said his players were “not as sharp as they needed to be” and the winter break might a reason. He said Hayfield was more aggressive and had outstanding outside shooting.

Gilliam’s reference is to senior Jordyn Krekling, who scored 17 points, nine of them from 3-pointers. Posting inside was Hayfield’s Kiley Severson, a senior who has more than 1,000 points in her career. She had 12 points. Completing the trio was senior Renee Stier with 10 points.

Albert Lea’s Morgan Stadheim led the scorers for the Tigers. The senior notched 15 points. Seniors Abbey Arends and Mikaela Pierson each scored 10 points.

The Tigers committed 23 turnovers, but in the game’s final five minutes they kept fighting, stealing a number of balls from the Vikings. Hayfield, which had 14 turnovers, kept calling timeouts to chill the late-in-the-game steal-and-score runs the Tigers would put together.

One steal led to a Stadheim basket and a foul, scoring a 3-pointer the old-fashioned way and getting the crowd rooting. However, there was only about 1:30 left in the game.

Hayfield 60, Albert Lea 41

Hayfield scoring: Jordyn Krekling 17, Kiley Severson 12, Renee Stier 10, Alyssa Selk 5, Abby Blanchard 4, Beth Felten 4, Liz Ristau 4, Kayla Garness 4

Albert Lea scoring: Morgan Stadheim 15, Abbey Arends 10, Mikaela Pierson 10, Skyler Anderson 6.