2011 Tribune Player of the Year

Don’t ask Alyssa Sager which game she scored 40 points in. She doesn’t remember. Or which game she set a school record with 27 rebounds. That’s hazy, too.

What the Albert Lea girls’ basketball standout does remember is every win and how it felt as her team struggled to win its third game — late in the season.

Despite enduring losing streaks of seven and eight games this year, Sager always put the team in front of herself. She just so happened to have one of the greatest individual seasons in school history in the process.

After four seasons on varsity, Sager was no stranger to hardships.

In limited playing time her freshman and sophomore seasons, the Tigers won just 11 conference games. The team finally experienced some success her junior season, finishing 9-9 in the Big Nine Conference, but Sager missed most of the season with a torn ACL. So she sat — on the bench — as her team finally won.

After the Tigers graduated three of their top players in 2010, Sager knew she had to carry more of the offensive load her senior season.

After three years on varsity she had accumulated 463 career points and wasn’t even halfway to 1,000. It looked that Sager would be one of the most offensively talented Albert Lea girls’ basketball players to never reach that milestone.

Sager agreed.

“I didn’t go into the season thinking I’d be close to 1,000 at all,” she said. “I just wanted to be a leader on the court, have a winning team record and make it far into sections. That’s all I wanted for myself.”

But the season didn’t start as she hoped. The Tigers lost their first two games to Waseca and at Northfield before riding a long bus ride to Winona for their conference opener. Sager didn’t want to the start the season 0-3 and it showed.

Against Winona on Dec. 10, Sager exploded for a triple-double, notching 24 points, 12 rebounds and 10 steals. Better yet, the Tigers cruised to a 72-53 win.

But the Tigers didn’t win again for nearly a month when the team set a school-record for points with an 82-54 win at Faribault on Jan. 7. That win was followed by an eight-game losing streak.

And Sager admits she became frustrated.

“I tried to stay positive but I knew we were a better team than that,” she said. “I just kind of had the attitude that I knew we could do it. I tried to stay as positive as possible with my teammates because I knew they got down as well.”

Sager’s positive attitude paid off.

The Tigers won three of their final five regular season games. After beating Faribault for a second time 64-53, the Tigers avenged an earlier 20-point loss to Rochester John Marshall by winning 70-40 — a 50-point swing. Sager scored a quiet 40 points that game and broke the school’s single-game scoring record by one point.

“I had no idea I was even close to 40 points,” Sager said. “I just saw people on the bench whispering to each other, and I had no clue what was going on.”

Sager scored 40 efficiently, shooting 13 of 22 from the field, 11 of 12 from the free-throw line and 3 of 6 from the 3-point line.

Sager said she didn’t feel like she scored 40 points but once she did the entire bench jumped in the air and started screaming.

“I was just focused on winning,” she said.

The Tigers lost their next two games before concluding the regular season at home, on senior night, against Austin.

With 945 career points, Sager turned in her best overall game of the season, scoring 28 points and breaking the school record with 27 rebounds. The Tigers beat Austin 77-72, and Sager concluded her career on her home court with a win.

The Tigers opened the Section 1AAA tournament on the road against Red Wing on March 2. Sager, who was 27 points shy of 1,000, turned in that exact number and made the milestone basket on the back end of two free throws. New Prague’s coach called a timeout to give her a moment to celebrate.

Sager attributes her success this year, and the team’s late-season success, to getting used to the team’s offensive and defensive styles. The Tigers played a fast-paced, run-and-gun type offense and defense where players were asked to play multiple positions.

“The style of play we were playing started clicking at the end of the season,” Sager said. “At the beginning I was focusing on what I was supposed to be doing. At the end I decided I was just going to go out and play.”

Sager said her knee injury didn’t have much of an affect on her play this season.

“It was still on my mind when jumping out of bounds and going after balls,” she said. “But it only affected my speed.”

Sager plans to attend and play basketball at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, next season. She plans on majoring in biology.

Tribune Player of the Year

2010-11: Alyssa Sager, Albert Lea

2009-10: Abbey Arends, Albert Lea

2008-09: Alyssa Kerkhoff, NRHEG

2007-08: Kate Hartman, N-K

2006-07: Brittany Hansen, NRHEG

2005-06: Alison Anderson, NRHEG

2004-05: Alison Anderson, NRHEG

2003-04: Alison Anderson, NRHEG

2002-03: Andrea Eilertson, USC

2001-02: Kjerstin Black, Lake Mills