The week began with promise for the Albert Lea boys’ basketball team but that quickly went unrealized when the Tigers entered Saturday’s game against Red Wing.

The Wingers presented Albert Lea with one of its best opportunities to pick up its third victory of the season, but a out-of-sync offensive performance and lackluster defensive effort led to a 68-48 loss for the Tigers at Albert Lea High School.

Albert Lea started off the week with a 72-71 overtime loss to Faribault and followed that with a 56-39 loss to Mankato West where the team showed improvement, but all of the positives gained from those games evaporated against the Wingers.

“We had a couple of big steps forward with the Faribault and West games,” said Tigers sophomore Kyle Ooms. “We had a little bit of confidence, thought we could keep it going but we took a big step back. We can never be satisfied with losing by just a couple and not getting blown out. We know the opportunities are there to win games and we need to go take them.”

Both teams entered with just two victories on the season and Red Wing (3-14) clearly showed it wanted its third victory more than Albert Lea.

The Tigers (2-14) never established any rhythm on offense in the first half and rushed shots from the perimeter instead of looking down low where the Tigers had success.

In the first half Albert Lea made 5 of 8 shots from inside the paint and drew fouls on two of the three missed shots. From the perimeter the Tigers went 3 of 18, but continued to shoot from outside the paint.

“I don’t know if we thought it was going to be easy tonight and Red Wing was just going to say, ‘Here, win this game,’” said Albert Lea head coach Lucas Kreuscher. “We must have forgot they actually care.”

The Tigers held a 15-11 lead midway through the first half, but went the final 9:39 of the first half without a field goal. Red Wing started a 25-5 run to close out the half.

The Wingers hit six 3-pointers and they seemed to hit them at the right time, especially in the second half.

After Ooms opened the second half with a layup, Colin Quinn answered with a 3-pointer. Colby Strileaeff hit a 3-pointer to make a 16-point game, but Evan Malmquist answered right back with a 3 to make it a 19-point game.

Ooms finished with nine points and Strilaeff led Albert Lea with 13 points.

Mitch Earney scored 17 points to lead Red Wing.

Albert Lea turned the ball over 16 times and got outrebounded 38-26.

The Tigers face Owatonna Tuesday in Owatonna.

Red Wing 68, Albert Lea 48

Red Wing 36 3 2 — 68

Albert Lea 20 28 — 48

Red Wing scoring: Mitch Earney 17, Pat Kelly 12, Isaac Sevlie 9, Coleman Kelly 8, Colin Quinn 7, Dylan Gorman 5, Evan Malmquist 5, Joel Newman 4, Alex Quiding 1.

Albert Lea scoring: Colby Strilaeff 13, Kyle Ooms 9, Damian Montes 7, Tyler Wichmann 7, Alik Smed 5, Cam Solie 3, Taylor Bordelon 2, Aaron Klatt 1, Marc Kruger 1.