Albert Lea Girls’ basketball team defeated by Rochester Mayo

The Albert Lea girls’ basketball team hosted Rochester Mayo Tuesday night searching for its first win of the season.

After falling into a large deficit to start the game, the Tigers were unable to climb back out and fell to the Spartans, 53-21.

The Spartans opened the game with a 17-point run, putting the Tigers at a big disadvantage about eight minutes into the first half. Senior Alexandra Eckstrom would put the Tigers on the scoreboard with back-to-back layups in the paint.

The Tigers would try to start a run of their own, but each time their momentum was stopped by a tough Spartans basket. They would erase some of that early deficit, but would head to the halftime break trailing, 26-12.

A big contributor to Albert Lea’s scoring, senior Rachel Rehnelt, went to the bench with an apparent hand injury midway through the first half, but would return to action starting in the second half.

The Tigers stayed competitive for a while in the second half, but the Spartans were able to keep their lead to the end. One aspect head coach Karol Hansen was pleased with was the team’s ability to get to the free throw line.

“When we play Mayo we know they’re going to be physical,” Hansen said. “We got to the line a lot tonight, but now we need to focus on making those shots. We were 32 percent from the line and we need to be better there.”

Despite the Tigers’ record, Hansen said the girls are making major improvements and are getting better every day.

“Our wins and loss record doesn’t indicate what these girls have been doing,” she said. “You need a dedicated, hard working group to become successful and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls to work with.”

The Tigers fall to 0-7 on the season and will host Northfield on Thursday.