If Sabermetrics ever makes it way to basketball Friday night’s Albert Lea girls’ basketball game against Winona might be an interesting case study.

The second half shooting statistics for the Tigers showed they went 4 of 26 from the field in the second half and shot just 25 percent for the game and was able to beat the Winhawks 51-47.

Winona shot 33 percent for the game, but the difference was the free throw line — the one place Albert Lea did succeed — and it was enough to help lead the Tigers to their first victory of the season.

“We went to the free throw line a boatload because we were the more aggressive team,” said Tigers head coach Sean Gillam. “The more aggressive team wins the game.”

Albert Lea senior Abbey Arends was one of those aggressive players for the Tigers. Arends went to the line 15 times and hit 10 of her free throws en route to tying a season high with 27 points.

Last season Arends was held to one point in 65-58 loss to Winona when the Winhawks used a box-in-one defense against her, but Arends was able to operate freely this time.

Arends went 8 of 17 shooting from the field as she helped Albert Lea rally from two deficits.

“We were lucky tonight that we were able to catch up, but we need to improve on that,” Arends said. “But I’m really happy with the victory and it’s a good first win.”

The Tigers (1-2) shot 70 percent from the free throw line in the second half on 17 of 24 shooting. Albert Lea tallied 37 free throw attempts for the game and hit on 22 of them. The Winhawks attempted just 12 free throws and made seven of them.

The Tigers trailed by as much as seven in the first half but rode a 11-4 run to close out the first half with a 26-25 lead after Arends hit a jump shot with less than 30 seconds in the half.

But the second half opened much like the previous two games for Albert Lea as Winona began attacking the Tiger defense. Megan Lueck started finding her shot and put the Winhawks up early.

“We tried something different so that we had to be out of our comfort zone and it wound up hurting us because Lueck kept hitting shots on the back end,” Gillam said.

The Tigers withstood a 7-0 run by the Winhawks to start the second half as Winona grabbed a 32-26 lead less than three minutes into the half.

“We talked about it at halftime and we’re not a super strong second half team and that’s what we need to become if we want to compete with any of these teams,” said Albert Lea senior Morgan Stadheim.

Albert Lea climbed back in the game and took the lead when Arends scored on a putback with 3:27 left to play to give the Tigers a 40-38 lead. It was Albert Lea’s first lead of the second half and the Tigers went on to complete a 9-0 run to extend the lead to seven.

Winona got as close as two with 7.9 seconds left, but Albert Lea continued to hit from the free throw line to earn its first victory of the season.

Arends is averaging 24.7 points per game through the first three games of the season and it has come with the Tigers playing without starter Alyssa Sager, who is out with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Take away Arends’ shooting and the Tigers shot 16 percent from the field. Though Arends has scored 20-plus points through the first three games, she’d be fine with one point as long as the team won.

“It’s a team aspect this year and I’m going to do everything I can to help my team win,” Arends said. “If that’s scoring points, getting rebounds, bringing the ball up the court, I’m going to do it every time to come out with the W.”

The Tigers have a chance to move to 2-0 in the conference Tuesday when they travel to Rochester to face Mayo.

Albert Lea 51, Winona 47

Winona 25 22 — 47

Albert Lea 26 25 — 51

Winona scoring: Megan Lueck 22, Shauna Mahoney 12, Brittany Scharmer 4, Nicky Becher 4, Olivia Mann 2, Paige Neyers 2, Emily Pasche 1.

Albert Lea scoring: Abbey Arends 27, Morgan Stadheim 8, Mikaela Pierson 7, Skyler Anderson 3, Sarah Wenum 3, Lana Howe 2, Katie Lucas 1.