Albert Lea boys’ basketball had two wins in the last two years, both of those wins coming in the third-place games of the Tiger Classic holiday tournament. Well, for the third consecutive season the Tigers picked up a victory in its own tournament, but this win differed for a couple reasons.

Unlike the last two seasons, this win was not the team’s first of the season. The Tigers already picked up a win over Waseca in its season opener. Secondly, the win did not come in a third-place game. That’s because Albert Lea won its first-round game last night against Hayfield, 55-50, meaning the Tigers will play Richfield in the championship game tonight at 7:30. Albert Lea sophomore forward Cameron Hove came off the bench to lead all scorers with 17 points, including two other Tigers in double figures.

“We moved a couple guys around to get him more playing time,” said first-year Albert Lea coach Lucas Kreuscher of Hove. “He showed why we wanted to get him more playing time.”

Kreuscher said if his team was to win it was going to be with defense. He said in Hayfield’s three wins this season the Vikings had averaged 65 points. It was Kreuscher’s goal to hold Hayfield to 50 points or less.

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“The one part of our game that was most consistent was our half-court defense,” Kreuscher said. “We allowed them just five field goals in the first half.”

Despite that statistic, the Tigers trailed at half, 20-19. After trailing for nearly every minute of the first half, Hayfield sophomore guard Bobbie Stephens hit two free throws to give his team the lead.

In the second half Hayfield jumped on top early. They led 25-19 with 14:22 remaining. Finally, Tigers’ junior Alik Smed got his team on the board with a bucket, and Hove followed shortly after with another two-pointer to get Albert Lea back in the game, trailing 26-23. Soon after, sophomore forward Kyle Ooms sandwiched another Hove bucket with a put back and a reverse layup. Prior to that, Ooms had been shut out offensively.

“I think Kyle was frustrated because he was getting shots in the paint and they just weren’t falling,” Kreuscher said of Ooms, who would score all 10 of his points in the second half.

But to be successful offensively Kreuscher said his team had to get the ball to its scorers, Ooms and senior Colby Strilaeff. Both, amongst others, came up big in the end.

Trailing 37-30 with 6:50 remaining, the Tigers outscored Hayfield 19 to 7 over a six-minute stretch beginning with junior guard Taylor Bordelon’s three-pointer, which bounced off the back rim, but received a fortuitous bounce and fell in. The run ended with Strilaeff hitting both ends of a one-and-one for a 49-44 Tigers lead with about a minute remaining. The run included Strilaeff converting two hard-fought layups, a three-pointer and the two free throws. He finished with 14 points.

“It’s frustrating when you have the lead and you make bad decisions and take bad shots,” said Hayfield coach Chris Pack, whose team suffered from turnovers and quick possessions late in the game. “You have to give Albert Lea credit. They capitalized on a couple of them.”

Albert Lea hit eight of 12 free throws down the stretch to hold on to the victory, including four by Ooms.

“We held our composure toward the end and that was huge for us,” said Strilaeff, who had his wisdom teeth removed Wednesday.

To play with Richfield tonight, Strilaeff said success would begin on the defensive end.

“We have to play our pace of game,” Strilaeff said. “We have to be able to control the tempo.”